Bash-compare-versions

This is a simplistic way to compare version numbers. This is useful for when commands change over time, and you do not know which or what kind of host will have which version of something.

• page with some examples

echo -e "2.22\n11.3.4" | sort -V
2.22
11.3.4

printf '%s\n2.15\n' $(ldd --version | sed -n '1s/.* //p') | sort -V | head -n 1

printf '%s\n2.22\n' $(git --version | sed -n '1s/.* //p') | sort -V

Example:

if [[ $(printf '%s\n2.22\n' $(git --version | sed -n '1s/.* //p') | sort -V) != "2.22" ]]; then
  echo "Earlier version than cutoff"
  someCommand
else
  echo "Later version of cutoff"
  someCommand_with_different_args
fi