Info Catalog coreutils: Using version sort in GNU coreutils coreutils: Version sort overview coreutils: Correct/Incorrect ordering and Expected/Unexpected results

coreutils: Origin of version sort and differences from natural sort

 
 30.1.2 Origin of version sort and differences from natural sort
 ---------------------------------------------------------------
 
 In GNU coreutils, the name “version sort” was chosen because it is based
 on Debian GNU/Linux’s algorithm of sorting packages’ versions.
 
    Its goal is to answer the question “which package is newer,
 ‘firefox-60.7.2’ or ‘firefox-60.12.3’ ?”
 
    In coreutils this algorithm was slightly modified to work on more
 general input such as textual strings and file names (see ⇒
 Differences from the official Debian Algorithm).
 
    In other contexts, such as other programs and other programming
 languages, a similar sorting functionality is called natural sort
 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_sort_order).
 

Info Catalog coreutils: Using version sort in GNU coreutils coreutils: Version sort overview coreutils: Correct/Incorrect ordering and Expected/Unexpected results