我实现了一个函数，返回与Dennis Williamson相同的结果，但使用更少的行数。它最初执行一个健全性检查，导致1..0从他的测试中失败(我认为应该是这样)，但他所有的其他测试都通过了这段代码:

#!/bin/bash
version_compare() {
    if [[ $1 =~ ^([0-9]+\.?)+$ && $2 =~ ^([0-9]+\.?)+$ ]]; then
        local l=(${1//./ }) r=(${2//./ }) s=${#l[@]}; [[ ${#r[@]} -gt ${#l[@]} ]] && s=${#r[@]}

        for i in $(seq 0 $((s - 1))); do
            [[ ${l[$i]} -gt ${r[$i]} ]] && return 1
            [[ ${l[$i]} -lt ${r[$i]} ]] && return 2
        done

        return 0
    else
        echo "Invalid version number given"
        exit 1
    fi
}

下面是对顶部答案(Dennis的)的改进，它更简洁，并使用了不同的返回值方案，以便通过单个比较轻松实现<=和>=。它还比较不是[0-9]的第一个字符之后的所有内容。]因此1.0rc1 < 1.0rc2。

# Compares two tuple-based, dot-delimited version numbers a and b (possibly
# with arbitrary string suffixes). Returns:
# 1 if a<b
# 2 if equal
# 3 if a>b
# Everything after the first character not in [0-9.] is compared
# lexicographically using ASCII ordering if the tuple-based versions are equal.
compare_versions() {
    if [[ $1 == "$2" ]]; then
        return 2
    fi
    local IFS=.
    local i a=(${1%%[^0-9.]*}) b=(${2%%[^0-9.]*})
    local arem=${1#${1%%[^0-9.]*}} brem=${2#${2%%[^0-9.]*}}
    for ((i=0; i<${#a[@]} || i<${#b[@]}; i++)); do
        if ((10#${a[i]:-0} < 10#${b[i]:-0})); then
            return 1
        elif ((10#${a[i]:-0} > 10#${b[i]:-0})); then
            return 3
        fi
    done
    if [ "$arem" '<' "$brem" ]; then
        return 1
    elif [ "$arem" '>' "$brem" ]; then
        return 3
    fi
    return 2
}

为了解决@gammazero的评论，一个(我认为)与语义版本兼容的更长的版本是:

# Compares two dot-delimited decimal-element version numbers a and b that may
# also have arbitrary string suffixes. Compatible with semantic versioning, but
# not as strict: comparisons of non-semver strings may have unexpected
# behavior.
#
# Returns:
# 1 if a<b
# 2 if equal
# 3 if a>b
compare_versions() {
    local LC_ALL=C

    # Optimization
    if [[ $1 == "$2" ]]; then
        return 2
    fi

    # Compare numeric release versions. Supports an arbitrary number of numeric
    # elements (i.e., not just X.Y.Z) in which unspecified indices are regarded
    # as 0.
    local aver=${1%%[^0-9.]*} bver=${2%%[^0-9.]*}
    local arem=${1#$aver} brem=${2#$bver}
    local IFS=.
    local i a=($aver) b=($bver)
    for ((i=0; i<${#a[@]} || i<${#b[@]}; i++)); do
        if ((10#${a[i]:-0} < 10#${b[i]:-0})); then
            return 1
        elif ((10#${a[i]:-0} > 10#${b[i]:-0})); then
            return 3
        fi
    done

    # Remove build metadata before remaining comparison
    arem=${arem%%+*}
    brem=${brem%%+*}

    # Prelease (w/remainder) always older than release (no remainder)
    if [ -n "$arem" -a -z "$brem" ]; then
        return 1
    elif [ -z "$arem" -a -n "$brem" ]; then
        return 3
    fi

    # Otherwise, split by periods and compare individual elements either
    # numerically or lexicographically
    local a=(${arem#-}) b=(${brem#-})
    for ((i=0; i<${#a[@]} && i<${#b[@]}; i++)); do
        local anns=${a[i]#${a[i]%%[^0-9]*}} bnns=${b[i]#${b[i]%%[^0-9]*}}
        if [ -z "$anns$bnns" ]; then
            # Both numeric
            if ((10#${a[i]:-0} < 10#${b[i]:-0})); then
                return 1
            elif ((10#${a[i]:-0} > 10#${b[i]:-0})); then
                return 3
            fi
        elif [ -z "$anns" ]; then
            # Numeric comes before non-numeric
            return 1
        elif [ -z "$bnns" ]; then
            # Numeric comes before non-numeric
            return 3
        else
            # Compare lexicographically
            if [[ ${a[i]} < ${b[i]} ]]; then
                return 1
            elif [[ ${a[i]} > ${b[i]} ]]; then
                return 3
            fi
        fi
    done

    # Fewer elements is earlier
    if (( ${#a[@]} < ${#b[@]} )); then
        return 1
    elif (( ${#a[@]} > ${#b[@]} )); then
        return 3
    fi

    # Must be equal!
    return 2
}

感谢Dennis的解决方案，我们可以扩展它以允许比较运算符'>'，'<'，'='，'=='，'<='和'>='。

# compver ver1 '=|==|>|<|>=|<=' ver2
compver() { 
    local op
    vercomp $1 $3
    case $? in
        0) op='=';;
        1) op='>';;
        2) op='<';;
    esac
    [[ $2 == *$op* ]] && return 0 || return 1
}

然后我们可以在表达式中使用比较运算符，比如:

compver 1.7 '<=' 1.8
compver 1.7 '==' 1.7
compver 1.7 '=' 1.7

并且只测试结果的真/假，比如:

if compver $ver1 '>' $ver2; then
    echo "Newer"
fi

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

如果它只是想知道一个版本是否比另一个版本低，我会检查sort——version-sort是否会改变我的版本字符串的顺序:

    string="$1
$2"
    [ "$string" == "$(sort --version-sort <<< "$string")" ]

这也是一个纯bash解决方案，因为printf是bash内置的。

function ver()
# Description: use for comparisons of version strings.
# $1  : a version string of form 1.2.3.4
# use: (( $(ver 1.2.3.4) >= $(ver 1.2.3.3) )) && echo "yes" || echo "no"
{
    printf "%02d%02d%02d%02d" ${1//./ }
}