Following Ian's advice, this patch worked for me: --- common.sh Thu Nov 19 17:41:33 1998 +++ common.sh Fri Jan 29 18:09:50 1999 @@ -14,7 +14,8 @@ shift 2 - if dpkg --compare-versions `basename $a` gt `basename $b`; then + if dpkg --compare-versions `dpkg-deb -f $a version` gt + `dpkg-deb -f $b version`; then last_by_version $a $@ else last_by_version $b $@