Sort::Versions - a perl 5 module for sorting of revision (and similar) numbers

This module allows easy sorting (via comparisons) of mixed text and numeric strings, similar to the complex "version numbers" that many revision control packages and shared library systems use. For an explanation of the algorithm, it's easiest to look at these examples:

1.1 < 1.2
1.1a < 1.2
1.1 < 1.1.1
1.1 < 1.1a
1.1.a < 1.1a

  1     <  a
  a     <  b
  1     <  2

(special handling for leading zeros)
0002 < 1
1.06 < 1.5

(a hyphen binds looser than a period) 1-1 < 1-2
1-2 < 1.2

To install, unpack the tarball and say:

perl Makefile.PL
make
make test

If the tests are successful, say as root:

make install

And that's it. Further documentation is available in the Versions.pm file, which may be accessed via 'perldoc Sort::Versions' after installation.

• Changes in this release

This is version 1.5; there are no functional changes since the last version but some tidying and extra tests.

• Author and copying

The files in this package are copyright Kenneth J. Albanowski, Ed Avis, and Matt Johnson. This package is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.