It looks to me like a standard alpha-numeric sort produces the correct order. What is needed is to select the last line in each "section". This is perhaps one way: 
#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;

my @data = <DATA>;
@data = sort @data;
#print @data; #uncomment to see sort order

my $last_line = shift @data;

foreach my $line (@data)
{
   my ($last_prefix,$last_suffix) =  
     $last_line =~ /^([a-zA-z-]+)\d.+(\.[^\.]+)$/;
   
   my ($cur_prefix,$cur_suffix) =
     $line =~ /^([a-zA-z-]+)\d.+(\.[^\.]+)$/;
     
   if ( $last_prefix eq $cur_prefix and
        $last_suffix eq $cur_suffix)
   {
       $last_line = $line;    
   }
   else
   {
       print "$last_line";
       $last_line = $line;
   }
}
print "$last_line";

=Prints:
abc-4.2.11-8.el7_2.x86_64
samba-common-libs-4.2.12-7.el7_2.x86_64
xyz-libs-4.2.13-7.el7_2.x86_64
=cut


__DATA__
samba-common-libs-4.2.10-6.2.el7_2.x86_64
samba-common-libs-4.2.10-8.el7_2.x86_64
samba-common-libs-4.2.12-7.el7_2.x86_64
samba-common-libs-4.2.10-6.el7_2.x86_64
samba-common-libs-4.2.10-3.el7_2.x86_64
xyz-libs-4.2.10-7.el7_2.x86_64
xyz-libs-4.2.12-7.el7_2.x86_64
xyz-libs-4.2.13-7.el7_2.x86_64
xyz-libs-4.2.11-7.el7_2.x86_64
abc-4.2.11-7.el7_2.x86_64
abc-4.2.11-8.el7_2.x86_64
abc-4.2.11-6.el7_2.x86_64

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In reply to Re: Advanced Bubble Sort by Marshall
in thread Advanced Bubble Sort by Anonymous Monk

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