In a range specification,
<literal>*
</literal> (asterisk) denotes the smallest version number. In particular,
<literal>2.*
</literal> is less than
<literal>2.a
</literal>. Therefore an asterisk may be used for a range to match all possible
<literal>alpha
</literal>,
<literal>beta
</literal>, and
<literal>RC
</literal> versions. For instance,
<literal><ge
>2.*
</ge
><lt
>3.*
</lt
></literal> will selectively match every
<literal>2.x
</literal> version while
<literal><ge
>2.0
</ge
><lt
>3.0
</lt
></literal> will not since the latter misses
<literal>2.r3
</literal> and matches
<literal>3.b
</literal>.