1. Hard-Coded Variables in the program  ( the SlackBuild )
   2. Config File Variables override #1    ( the .info file )
   3. Command Line Variables Override #2 and #1

                # Step 5 - fixup braindead cases
                # Sometimes the above doesn't work -- see cpan2tgz for 12.1
                # In that case, let's trust the .info file...
                [[ -z $NEWVER ]] && echo "Empty version!" >> $ERRORMSG
                if [[ $(< $ERRORMSG) ]]; then
                    NEWINFO=$(sed 's/\.SlackBuild$/\.info/g' <<< "$NEWSB")
                    NEWVER=$(grep "^VERSION" $NEWINFO | cut -d\" -f2)
                fi

#!/bin/bash

[ $# -lt 1 ] && echo "usage:  `basename $0` some.SlackBuild" >&2 && exit 1

File="$1"
#
# find line(s) with '^VERSION=' pattern ; discard trailing comments ; get the value ; print only the last instance.
#
grep -h '^VERSION=' "$File" |sed -e 's/ *#.*$//' -e 's/^.*:-//' -e 's/^VERSION="*//'  -e 's/[\}"].*$//g' |tail -1

exit ${PIPESTATUS[0]}

VERSION=1.2.3                 # no command line override allowed here
VERSION="${VERSION:-1.2.3}"   # quoted assignments
VERSION=${VERSION:-1.2.3}     # standard syntax

    # If VERSION isn't set, snarf it from the SlackBuild:
    local versioncmds prevdir
    if [ -z "$VERSION" ]; then
      # The next bit is necessarily dependent on the empirical characteristics
      # of the SlackBuilds in Slackware, msb, csb, etc :-/
      versioncmds="$(grep -E '^(PKGNAM|SRCNAM|VERSION)=' "$SR_SBREPO"/"$itemdir"/"$itemfile")"
      # execute $versioncmds in the SlackBuild's directory so it can use the source tarball's name:
      prevdir=$(pwd)
      cd "$SR_SBREPO"/"$itemdir"/ && eval "$versioncmds"
      unset PKGNAM SRCNAM
      cd "$prevdir"
    fi

VERSION=${VERSION:-0.1.2}