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

$ 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

下面是一个不需要任何外部工具的纯Bash版本:

#!/bin/bash
vercomp () {
    if [[ $1 == $2 ]]
    then
        return 0
    fi
    local IFS=.
    local i ver1=($1) ver2=($2)
    # fill empty fields in ver1 with zeros
    for ((i=${#ver1[@]}; i<${#ver2[@]}; i++))
    do
        ver1[i]=0
    done
    for ((i=0; i<${#ver1[@]}; i++))
    do
        if [[ -z ${ver2[i]} ]]
        then
            # fill empty fields in ver2 with zeros
            ver2[i]=0
        fi
        if ((10#${ver1[i]} > 10#${ver2[i]}))
        then
            return 1
        fi
        if ((10#${ver1[i]} < 10#${ver2[i]}))
        then
            return 2
        fi
    done
    return 0
}

testvercomp () {
    vercomp $1 $2
    case $? in
        0) op='=';;
        1) op='>';;
        2) op='<';;
    esac
    if [[ $op != $3 ]]
    then
        echo "FAIL: Expected '$3', Actual '$op', Arg1 '$1', Arg2 '$2'"
    else
        echo "Pass: '$1 $op $2'"
    fi
}

# Run tests
# argument table format:
# testarg1   testarg2     expected_relationship
echo "The following tests should pass"
while read -r test
do
    testvercomp $test
done << EOF
1            1            =
2.1          2.2          <
3.0.4.10     3.0.4.2      >
4.08         4.08.01      <
3.2.1.9.8144 3.2          >
3.2          3.2.1.9.8144 <
1.2          2.1          <
2.1          1.2          >
5.6.7        5.6.7        =
1.01.1       1.1.1        =
1.1.1        1.01.1       =
1            1.0          =
1.0          1            =
1.0.2.0      1.0.2        =
1..0         1.0          =
1.0          1..0         =
EOF

echo "The following test should fail (test the tester)"
testvercomp 1 1 '>'

运行测试:

$ . ./vercomp
The following tests should pass
Pass: '1 = 1'
Pass: '2.1 < 2.2'
Pass: '3.0.4.10 > 3.0.4.2'
Pass: '4.08 < 4.08.01'
Pass: '3.2.1.9.8144 > 3.2'
Pass: '3.2 < 3.2.1.9.8144'
Pass: '1.2 < 2.1'
Pass: '2.1 > 1.2'
Pass: '5.6.7 = 5.6.7'
Pass: '1.01.1 = 1.1.1'
Pass: '1.1.1 = 1.01.1'
Pass: '1 = 1.0'
Pass: '1.0 = 1'
Pass: '1.0.2.0 = 1.0.2'
Pass: '1..0 = 1.0'
Pass: '1.0 = 1..0'
The following test should fail (test the tester)
FAIL: Expected '>', Actual '=', Arg1 '1', Arg2 '1'

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
}

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