How to compare two strings in dot separated version format in Bash?

Question

Is there any way to compare such strings on bash, e.g.: 2.4.5 and 2.8 and 2.4.5.1?

Answer 1

Well if you know the number of fields you can use -k n,n and get a super-simple solution

echo '2.4.5
2.8
2.4.5.1
2.10.2' | sort -t '.' -k 1,1 -k 2,2 -k 3,3 -k 4,4 -g

2.4.5
2.4.5.1
2.8
2.10.2