Is dpkg --compare-versions canonical?

[Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu>]

dpkg --compare-versions provides exactly the ordering that I want, namely
that 1.4rc1 < 1.4.0 so by omitting the final patch number in the RC
revision I can use the correct upstream version without using epochs or
strange-looking version numbers.  However, since this is a bit of an edge
case, I wanted to double-check and be sure that dpkg --compare-versions is
the canonical ordering for version numbers.  I'm pretty sure it is, but
better safe than sorry to check.

Is there a document anywhere outside of the dpkg source that explains the
algorithm for how version numbers are ordered by the archive software?

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra@stanford.edu)             <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>