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

$ for OVFTOOL_VERSION in "4.2.0" "4.2.1" "5.2.0" "3.2.0" "4.1.9" "4.0.1" "4.3.0" "4.5.0" "4.2.1" "30.1.0" "4" "5" "4.1" "4.3"
> do
>   if [ $(echo "$OVFTOOL_VERSION 4.2.0" | tr " " "\n" | sort --version-sort | head -n 1) = 4.2.0 ]; then 
>     echo "$OVFTOOL_VERSION is >= 4.2.0"; 
>   else 
>     echo "$OVFTOOL_VERSION is < 4.2.0"; 
>   fi
> done
4.2.0 is >= 4.2.0
4.2.1 is >= 4.2.0
5.2.0 is >= 4.2.0
3.2.0 is < 4.2.0
4.1.9 is < 4.2.0
4.0.1 is < 4.2.0
4.3.0 is >= 4.2.0
4.5.0 is >= 4.2.0
4.2.1 is >= 4.2.0
30.1.0 is >= 4.2.0
4 is < 4.2.0
5 is >= 4.2.0
4.1 is < 4.2.0
4.3 is >= 4.2.0