NAME

Git::Version::Compare - Functions to compare Git versions

SYNOPSIS

    use Git::Version::Compare qw( cmp_git );

    # result: 1.2.3 1.7.0.rc0 1.7.4.rc1 1.8.3.4 1.9.3 2.0.0.rc2 2.0.3 2.3.0.rc1
    my @versions = sort cmp_git qw(
      1.7.4.rc1 1.9.3 1.7.0.rc0 2.0.0.rc2 1.2.3 1.8.3.4 2.3.0.rc1 2.0.3
    );

DESCRIPTION

Git::Version::Compare contains a selection of subroutines that make dealing with Git-related things (like versions) a little bit easier.

The strings to compare can be version numbers, tags from git.git or the output of git version or git describe.

These routines collect the knowledge about Git versions that was accumulated while developing Git::Repository.

AVAILABLE FUNCTIONS

By default Git::Version::Compare does not export any subroutines.

All the comparison version functions die when given strings that do not look like Git version numbers (the check is done with "looks_like_git").

lt_git

    if ( lt_git( $v1, $v2 ) ) { ... }

A Git-aware version of the lt operator.

gt_git

    if ( gt_git( $v1, $v2 ) ) { ... }

A Git-aware version of the gt operator.

le_git

    if ( le_git( $v1, $v2 ) ) { ... }

A Git-aware version of the le operator.

ge_git

    if ( ge_git( $v1, $v2 ) ) { ... }

A Git-aware version of the ge operator.

eq_git

    if ( eq_git( $v1, $v2 ) ) { ... }

A Git-aware version of the eq operator.

ne_git

    if ( ne_git( $v1, $v2 ) ) { ... }

A Git-aware version of the ne operator.

cmp_git

    @versions = sort cmp_git @versions;

A Git-aware version of the cmp operator.

looks_like_git

    # true
    looks_like_git(`git version`);    # duh

    # false
    looks_like_git('v1.7.3_02');      # no _ in git versions

Given a string, returns true if it looks like a Git version number (and can therefore be parsed by Git::Version::Number) and false otherwise.

EXPORT TAGS

:ops

Exports lt_git, gt_git, le_git, ge_git, eq_git, and ne_git.

:all

Exports lt_git, gt_git, le_git, ge_git, eq_git, ne_git, cmp_git, and looks_like_git.

EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT GIT VERSION NUMBERS

Version numbers

Version numbers as returned by git version are in the following formats (since the 1.4 series, in 2006):

    # stable version
    1.6.0
    2.7.1

    # maintenance release
    1.8.5.6

    # release candidate
    1.6.0.rc2

    # development version
    # (the last two elements come from `git describe`)
    1.7.1.209.gd60ad
    1.8.5.1.21.gb2a0afd
    2.3.0.rc0.36.g63a0e83

In the git.git repository, several commits have multiple tags (e.g. v1.0.1 and v1.0.2 point respectively to v1.0.0a and v1.0.0b). Pre-1.0.0 versions also have non-standard formats like 0.99.9j or 1.0rc2.

This explains why:

    # this is true
    eq_git( '0.99.9l', '1.0rc4' );
    eq_git( '1.0.0a',  '1.0.1' );

    # this is false
    ge_git( '1.0rc3', '0.99.9m' );

git version appeared in version 1.3.0. git --version appeared in version 0.99.7. Before that, there is no way to know which version of Git one is dealing with.

Git::Version::Compare converts all version numbers to an internal format before performing a simple string comparison.

Development versions

Prior to 1.4.0-rc1 (June 2006), compiling a development version of Git would lead git --version to output 1.x-GIT (with x in 0 .. 3), which would make comparing versions that are very close a futile exercise.

Other issues exist when comparing development version numbers with one another. For example, 1.7.1.1 is greater than both 1.7.1.1.gc8c07 and 1.7.1.1.g5f35a, and 1.7.1 is less than both. Obviously, 1.7.1.1.gc8c07 will compare as greater than 1.7.1.1.g5f35a (asciibetically), but in fact these two version numbers cannot be compared, as they are two siblings children of the commit tagged v1.7.1). For practical purposes, the version-comparison methods declares them equal.

Therefore:

    # this is true
    lt_git( '1.8.5.4.8.g7c9b668', '1.8.5.4.19.g5032098' );
    gt_git( '1.3.GIT', '1.3.0' );

    # this is false
    ne_git( '1.7.1.1.gc8c07', '1.7.1.1.g5f35a' );
    gt_git( '1.3.GIT', '1.3.1' );

If one were to compute the set of all possible version numbers (as returned by git --version) for all git versions that can be compiled from each commit in the git.git repository, the result would not be a totally ordered set. Big deal.

Also, don't be too precise when requiring the minimum version of Git that supported a given feature. The precise commit in git.git at which a given feature was added doesn't mean as much as the release branch in which that commit was merged.

SEE ALSO

Test::Requires::Git, for defining Git version requirements in test scripts that need git.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2016 Philippe Bruhat (BooK), all rights reserved.

LICENSE

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

cpanm Git::Version::Compare

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Git::Version::Compare