function Compare-ReleaseMetadata {
<#
.SYNOPSIS
    Compare two version release metadata parts for equivalence using the same pattern as Compare-SemVer.
    This function principally intended to be called from Compare-SemVer, prefer that over this.

.PARAMETER Version1Metadata
    [string] A portion of a version for comparing/evaluating just the portion of the metadata

.PARAMETER Version2Metadata
    [string] A portion of a version for comparing/evaluating just the portion of the metadata
#>
    [CmdletBinding()]
    [OutputType([int])]

    param(
        [string]$Version1Metadata,
        [string]$Version2Metadata
    )

    if((-not $Version1Metadata) -and (-not $Version2Metadata))
    {
        return 0
    }

    # For release part, 1.0.0 is newer/greater then 1.0.0-alpha. So return 1 here.
    if((-not $Version1Metadata) -and $Version2Metadata)
    {
        return 1
    }

    if(($Version1Metadata) -and (-not $Version2Metadata))
    {
        return -1
    }

    $version1Parts=$Version1Metadata.Trim('-').Split('.')
    $version2Parts=$Version2Metadata.Trim('-').Split('.')

    $length = [System.Math]::Min($version1Parts.Length, $version2Parts.Length)

    for ($i = 0; ($i -lt $length); $i++)
    {
        $result = Compare-MetadataPart -Version1Part $version1Parts[$i] -Version2Part $version2Parts[$i]

        if ($result -ne 0)
        {
            return $result
        }
    }

    # so far we found two versions are the same. If length is the same, we think two version are indeed the same
    if($version1Parts.Length -eq $version1Parts.Length)
    {
        return 0
    }

    # 1.0.0-alpha < 1.0.0-alpha.1
    if($version1Parts.Length -lt $length)
    {
        return -1
    }
    else
    {
        return 1
    }
 }