---
name: "pkg_check-version"
section: "1"
platform: "openbsd"
package: "man"
version: "8.0-current-20261101"
release: "OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01)"
platforms: ["openbsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/pkg_check-version"
---

# pkg\_check-version(1)

verify parsing and ordering of package names

## NAME

**pkg\_check-version** – verify parsing and ordering of package names

## SYNOPSIS

**pkg\_check-version** \[**-Hv**\] *pkgname* *...*

## DESCRIPTION

**pkg\_check-version** takes a list of *pkgname* and processes them.

- each name is parsed and checked for issues.

- in addition, comparable names (same stem and same flavor) are sorted from older to newer version.

Options are as follows:

- **-H**

  displays a human-readable version of each *pkgname* (full version parsing, including known suffixes, dewey numbers parsing, REVISION, EPOCH, flavor markers).

- **-v**

  verbose mode, which will explicitly state *pkgname* with no issues and sort one element lists.

## EXIT STATUS

The **pkg\_check-version** utility exits with 0, unless one of the *pkgname* was malformed, or two names are actually non comparable( such as ‘moo-1.23pre1’ and ‘moo-1.23rc1’).

## SEE ALSO

[packages-specs(7)](/packages-specs/7.md)

## AUTHORS

Marc Espie ⟨*espie@openbsd.org*⟩