Re: kernel question

[Brian Servis <servis@purdue.edu>]

*- On  6 Jan, Pollywog wrote about "Re: kernel question"
>> 
>> Basically anything with a letter will be fine, something like
>> pollywog.1.  Use dpkg to check it if you are not sure.
>> 
>>#dpkg --compare-versions 2.2.14-1 ge pollywog.1 ; echo $? 
>> 1
>>#dpkg --compare-versions 2.2.14-1 lt pollywog.1 ; echo $? 
>> 0
> 
> I did not know about dpkg --compare-versions.  I am guessing the resulting "1"
> and "0" are exit codes, the "0" indicating no error.
> 

Yep.  After a command exits the shell stores the exit code in the $?
variable, and I am just echoing to see what it is.  An exit code of "0"
means no problems and anything else indicates and error.  In the first
example above dpkg returned with an error because 2.2.14-1 is NOT
"(g)reater-than-or-(e)qual-to" pollywog.1. Since 2.2.14-1 is
"(l)ess-(t)han" pollywog.1 it returned without an error code in the
second example.  The --compare-versions I think was originally ment to
be used in package scripts but it can be handy for things like this.

Brian Servis
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