Dpkg::Version(3perl)

💅 Dpkg::Version(3perl) — your bestie's guide to dpkg-style version numbers

Ok so this page lives in the libdpkg-perl manual, and it's literally the glow-up you need if you've ever stared at a Debian version string like 1:2.3.4-5 and thought "what is any of this". Buckle up, bestie 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

Dpkg::Version — handling and comparing dpkg-style version numbers. That's it. That's the whole vibe. 💅

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So Dpkg::Version gives you pure-Perl routines to compare dpkg-style version numbers (the kind used in Debian packages), and ngl it also ships an object-oriented interface that overrides perl operators so that when you compare two Dpkg::Version objects against each other, it just does the right thing. No cap. 🫶

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🦋 METHODS 🦋

💜 $v = Dpkg::Version->new($version, %opts)

Makes you a brand-new Dpkg::Version object matching the version in the string (scalar) $version. By default it's super chill and will accept any string and treat it as a valid version, but you can control that with the check option. ✨

And you can always call $v->is_valid() later on to verify that the version is actually valid. Good to have that safety net.

Options:

• check — setting this option to true will return undef if the version is invalid (peep $v->version_check() for the deets). 🙈

🧚 boolean evaluation

When the Dpkg::Version object gets used in a boolean evaluation (like in if ($v) or $v ? \"$v\" : 'default'), it returns true if the version stored is valid ($v->is_valid()) and false otherwise.

⚠️ Notice, and this one's important: between dpkg 1.15.7.2 and 1.19.1 this overload used to return $v->as_string() if $v->is_valid() — a breaking change in behavior that caused "0" versions to be evaluated as false. 😭 To catch any possibly intended code that relied on those semantics, this overload emitted a warning with category Dpkg::Version::semantic_change::overload::bool between dpkg 1.19.1 and 1.20.0. Once fixed, or for already valid code, the warning could be quiesced for that specific versions with

no if $Dpkg::Version::VERSION eq '1.02',
   warnings => qw(Dpkg::Version::semantic_change::overload::bool);

added after the use Dpkg::Version.

🍓 $bool = $v->is_valid()

Returns true if the version is valid, false otherwise. Simple. Iconic. ✨

👑 $string = $v->epoch()

Returns the epoch part of the full version string.

If the version parsed did not have an epoch, the value returned will be 0.

🌈 $string = $v->version()

Returns the upstream version part of the full version string. That's the main character part, fr fr.

🎀 $string = $v->revision()

Returns the revision part of the full version string.

If the version parsed did not have a revision, the value returned will be 0.

💀 $bool = $v->is_native()

Returns true if the version is native, false if it has a revision.

⚠️ Note: on some vendors, dpkg has been made incoherent, and a native source package format can end up having a non-native version, adding to the confusion of the whole concept. And while this method would be fine to be used on vendors that have a coherent native source concept, this is not a pattern that will be portably relied on. Thus this method is being deprecated. Depending on the context, using the negated result of the $v->has_revision() method might be sensible. 🫠

🔥 $v->has_epoch()

Returns true if the version has an epoch, false otherwise.

⭐ $v->has_revision()

Returns true if the version has a revision, false otherwise.

🦋 comparison operators, slay

$cmp = $v1 <=> $v2
$cmp = $v1 < $v2
$cmp = $v1 <= $v2
$cmp = $v1 > $v2
$cmp = $v1 >= $v2

Numerical comparison of various versions numbers. One of the two operands needs to be a Dpkg::Version, the other one can be anything provided that its string representation is a version number. ✨

💖 $string = "$v" / $string = $v->as_string(%opts)

Accepts an options %opts hash, affecting the string conversion. So you can ✨ customize ✨ your output.

Options:

• omit_epoch (defaults to 0) — omit the epoch, if present, in the output string.
• omit_revision (defaults to 0) — omit the revision, if present, in the output string.

Returns the string representation of the version number. Periodt. 💅

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🌟 FUNCTIONS 🌟

All the functions are exported by default — you don't gotta ask, they just show up. 🫶

🧚 $cmp = version_compare($a, $b)

Returns -1 if $a is earlier than $b, 0 if they are equal and 1 if $a is later than $b.

⚠️ If $a or $b are not valid version numbers, it dies with an error. So like, know your inputs bestie. 💀

🍓 $bool = version_compare_relation($a, $rel, $b)

Returns the result (0 or 1) of the given comparison operation. This function is implemented on top of version_compare().

Allowed values for $rel are the exported constants REL_GT, REL_GE, REL_EQ, REL_LE, REL_LT. Use version_normalize_relation() if you have an input string containing the operator. 👑

🌸 $rel = version_normalize_relation($rel_string)

Returns the normalized constant of the relation $rel (a value among REL_GT, REL_GE, REL_EQ, REL_LE and REL_LT). Supported relations names in input are: "gt", "ge", "eq", "le", "lt", ">>", ">=", "=", "<=", "<<". ">" and "<" are also supported but should not be used as they are obsolete aliases of ">=" and "<=". 🙈

🌈 $cmp = version_compare_string($a, $b)

String comparison function used for comparing non-numerical parts of version numbers. Returns -1 if $a is earlier than $b, 0 if they are equal and 1 if $a is later than $b.

The nitty-gritty sorting tea, so listen up:

• The "~" character always sorts lower than anything else.
• Digits sort lower than non-digits.
• Among remaining characters, alphabetic characters (A-Z, a-z) sort lower than the other ones.
• Within each range, the ASCII decimal value of the character is used to sort between characters.

💜 $cmp = version_compare_part($a, $b)

Compare two corresponding sub-parts of a version number (either upstream version or debian revision).

Each parameter is split by version_split_digits() and resulting items are compared together. As soon as a difference happens, it returns -1 if $a is earlier than $b, 0 if they are equal and 1 if $a is later than $b. 🎀

🧚 @items = version_split_digits($version)

Splits a string in items that are each entirely composed either of digits or of non-digits. For instance for "1.024~beta1+svn234" it would return ("1", ".", "024", "~beta", "1", "+svn", "234"). Obsessed with how clean that is. ✨

🎀 ($ok, $msg) = version_check($version) / $ok = version_check($version)

Checks the validity of $version as a version number. Returns 1 in $ok if the version is valid, 0 otherwise. In the latter case, $msg contains a description of the problem with the $version scalar. So you get the ➡️ reason ➡️ too. 💅

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🎀 CHANGES 🎀

💖 Version 1.05 (dpkg 1.23.3)

• New methods: $v->has_epoch(), $v->has_revision().

🦋 Version 1.04 (dpkg 1.23.0)

• Deprecated method: $v->is_native().

🌸 Version 1.03 (dpkg 1.20.0)

• Remove deprecation warning from semantic change in 1.02.

⭐ Version 1.02 (dpkg 1.19.1)

• Semantic change: bool evaluation semantics restored to their original behavior.

🌈 Version 1.01 (dpkg 1.17.0)

• New argument: Accept an options argument in $v->as_string().
• New method: $v->is_native().

👑 Version 1.00 (dpkg 1.15.6)

• Mark the module as public.

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okay that's the whole page bestie, go forth and compare versions with confidence 💅✨

mwah 💋 — this was 1.23.11-dirty, dated 2026-09-09, and yeah we're still calling it Dpkg::Version(3perl). slay.