function version_compare () {
  function sub_ver () {
    local len=${#1}
    temp=${1%%"."*} && indexOf=`echo ${1%%"."*} | echo ${#temp}`
    echo -e "${1:0:indexOf}"
  }
  function cut_dot () {
    local offset=${#1}
    local length=${#2}
    echo -e "${2:((++offset)):length}"
  }
  if [ -z "$1" ] || [ -z "$2" ]; then
    echo "=" && exit 0
  fi
  local v1=`echo -e "${1}" | tr -d '[[:space:]]'`
  local v2=`echo -e "${2}" | tr -d '[[:space:]]'`
  local v1_sub=`sub_ver $v1`
  local v2_sub=`sub_ver $v2`
  if (( v1_sub > v2_sub )); then
    echo ">"
  elif (( v1_sub < v2_sub )); then
    echo "<"
  else
    version_compare `cut_dot $v1_sub $v1` `cut_dot $v2_sub $v2`
  fi
}

### Usage:

version_compare "1.2.3" "1.2.4"
# Output: <

功劳归于@Shellman

如果你有coreutils-7 (Ubuntu Karmic，而不是Jaunty)，那么你的排序命令应该有一个-V选项(版本排序)，你可以使用它来进行比较:

verlte() {
    [  "$1" = "`echo -e "$1\n$2" | sort -V | head -n1`" ]
}

verlt() {
    [ "$1" = "$2" ] && return 1 || verlte $1 $2
}

verlte 2.5.7 2.5.6 && echo "yes" || echo "no" # no
verlt 2.4.10 2.4.9 && echo "yes" || echo "no" # no
verlt 2.4.8 2.4.10 && echo "yes" || echo "no" # yes
verlte 2.5.6 2.5.6 && echo "yes" || echo "no" # yes
verlt 2.5.6 2.5.6 && echo "yes" || echo "no" # no

下面是另一个纯bash版本，比公认的答案要小得多。它只检查版本是否小于或等于“最小版本”，并且它将按字典顺序检查字母数字序列，这通常会给出错误的结果(举个常见的例子，“snapshot”不晚于“release”)。它将工作的主要/次要。

is_number() {
    case "$BASH_VERSION" in
        3.1.*)
            PATTERN='\^\[0-9\]+\$'
            ;;
        *)
            PATTERN='^[0-9]+$'
            ;;
    esac

    [[ "$1" =~ $PATTERN ]]
}

min_version() {
    if [[ $# != 2 ]]
    then
        echo "Usage: min_version current minimum"
        return
    fi

    A="${1%%.*}"
    B="${2%%.*}"

    if [[ "$A" != "$1" && "$B" != "$2" && "$A" == "$B" ]]
    then
        min_version "${1#*.}" "${2#*.}"
    else
        if is_number "$A" && is_number "$B"
        then
            [[ "$A" -ge "$B" ]]
        else
            [[ ! "$A" < "$B" ]]
        fi
    fi
}

$ for OVFTOOL_VERSION in "4.2.0" "4.2.1" "5.2.0" "3.2.0" "4.1.9" "4.0.1" "4.3.0" "4.5.0" "4.2.1" "30.1.0" "4" "5" "4.1" "4.3"
> do
>   if [ $(echo "$OVFTOOL_VERSION 4.2.0" | tr " " "\n" | sort --version-sort | head -n 1) = 4.2.0 ]; then 
>     echo "$OVFTOOL_VERSION is >= 4.2.0"; 
>   else 
>     echo "$OVFTOOL_VERSION is < 4.2.0"; 
>   fi
> done
4.2.0 is >= 4.2.0
4.2.1 is >= 4.2.0
5.2.0 is >= 4.2.0
3.2.0 is < 4.2.0
4.1.9 is < 4.2.0
4.0.1 is < 4.2.0
4.3.0 is >= 4.2.0
4.5.0 is >= 4.2.0
4.2.1 is >= 4.2.0
30.1.0 is >= 4.2.0
4 is < 4.2.0
5 is >= 4.2.0
4.1 is < 4.2.0
4.3 is >= 4.2.0

与其编写冗长的代码使您的生活过于复杂，不如使用一些已经存在的东西。很多时候，当bash不够用时，python可以提供帮助。你仍然可以很容易地从bash脚本调用它(额外的好处:从bash到python的变量替换):

VERSION1=1.2.3
VERSION2=1.2.4

cat <<EOF | python3 | grep -q True
from packaging import version
print(version.parse("$VERSION1") > version.parse("$VERSION2"))
EOF

if [ "$?" == 0 ];  then
   echo "$VERSION1 is greater than $VERSION2"
else
   echo "$VERSION2 is greater or equal than $VERSION1"
fi

这里有更多信息:如何比较Python中的版本号?

对于旧版本/busybox排序。简单的形式提供了粗略的结果，往往奏效。

sort -n

这是特别有用的版本，其中包含alpha符号，如

10.c.3
10.a.4
2.b.5