Re: Version sort behavior

[Bruno Haible]

Artém S. Tashkinóv wrote:
> I'd like to know why the version sort behavior has changed drastically
> and how the following list is supposed to be version sorted:
> 
> .mozilla.ram
> .wine
> .ICE-unix
> .X11-unix
> .XIM-unix
> .chrome-cache
> .font-unix
> .vbox-birdie-ipc
> .wine-1000
> 
> The new version sort doesn't look like it's sorted at least to me.
> 
> The pertinent details are discussed here
> https://midnight-commander.org/ticket/4374

I can reproduce the issue, with coreutils 9.1 vs. 9.0:

$ mkdir 4374
$ cd 4374
$ touch .ICE-unix .X11-unix .XIM-unix .chrome-cache .font-unix .mozilla.ram 
.vbox-birdie-ipc .wine .wine-1000
$ LC_ALL=C ls-9.0 --group-directories-first --sort=version -a .|cat
.
..
.ICE-unix
.X11-unix
.XIM-unix
.chrome-cache
.font-unix
.mozilla.ram
.vbox-birdie-ipc
.wine
.wine-1000
bruno@omega:/tmp/4374$ LC_ALL=C ls-9.1 --group-directories-first --sort=version 
-a .|cat
.
..
.mozilla.ram
.wine
.ICE-unix
.X11-unix
.XIM-unix
.chrome-cache
.font-unix
.vbox-birdie-ipc
.wine-1000

It seems like all file names without a '-' get sorted before all file names
with a '-', and that this is the primary sort criterion.

coreutils/src/ls.c uses filevercmp (not versionsort), and this behaviour seems
to contradict the specification in filevercmp.h.

Bruno