For compatibility with mixing decimals and v-strings, the built-in UNIVERSAL::require_version uses three decimal digits per part.

If you have $MyModule::VERSION= 1.12; (a decimal number) and do a use MyModule 1.20.1 qw/bar/, it will tell you that the module 1.120 and you asked for 1.020, so that's OK. You expected 1.20 to be greater than 1.12, not-OK.

—John