Python Package Index

Is the supported versioning scheme documented somewhere? It would be
helpful if PyPI (and the distutils docs) would tell users how to best name
their versions to have them correctly sorted in PyPI.

Version sorting is performed using distutils.version.LooseVersion. This is
not likely to change without some sort of AI :)

Martin, I found at least one project that uses "a" and "b" as postfix for
*increasing* patch level version numbers. In that case, it's impossible to
distinguish them from the more common "alpha" and "beta" markers. So, now I
know what you mean with "too many different ways". I guess you're right
that there isn't really a way to do it "correctly"...

I really don't think it's that hard to do. All there is to it is split
version numbers into sequences of numbers, dots and letters and compare the
resulting tuples. Done. I wouldn't even consider that worth a PEP, not even
the fine tuning that might be doable afterwards.

I don't think a solution to that problem is even remotely feasible. People
use too many different ways to denote versions, so you can't expect PyPI to
sort them "correctly".

If you think this is an important issue, please provide a thorough
specification, as a PEP, circulate it, and get people agree. If you then
have still time left, please consider contributing a patch to PyPI.