linux - Sorting numbers with multiple decimals in bash

Question

In bash using sort with the -n option doesn't give me the expected result.

$ cat numbers | sort -n
1.0
1.1
1.11.4
1.15
1.3
1.3.3
1.4-p1
1.6.1
2.2.10
2.2.2
2.4
2.4.6

I tried using -k1, -k1.1n, etc. (-k1.3n gets the order correct only for numbers starting with 1). It seems there's something very basic I'm missing here...

Answer 1

There is a special flag for this -V for version numbers

$ sort -V numbers

1.0
1.1
1.3
1.3.3
1.4-p1
1.6.1
1.11.4
1.15
2.2.2
2.2.10
2.4
2.4.6

ps. this option is available in GNU Coreutils and may be missing in other implementations.