Fix minversion TypeError with dev version strings

Switch to packaging.version.Version for version comparison
to handle PEP 440 dev/rc versions correctly. This resolves
failures introduced by PR astropy#7647 and avoids distutils'
LooseVersion bug (see python/cpython#30272).

Add tests for dev/rc version handling in minversion.

Author: aryautkarsh091

astropy/utils/introspection.py

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 import inspect
 import types
 import importlib
-from distutils.version import LooseVersion
+from packaging.version import Version
 
 
 __all__ = ['resolve_name', 'minversion', 'find_current_module',
@@ -140,9 +140,9 @@ def minversion(module, version, inclusive=True, version_path='__version__'):
         have_version = resolve_name(module.__name__, version_path)
 
     if inclusive:
-        return LooseVersion(have_version) >= LooseVersion(version)
+        return Version(have_version) >= Version(version)
     else:
-        return LooseVersion(have_version) > LooseVersion(version)
+        return Version(have_version) > Version(version)
 
 
 def find_current_module(depth=1, finddiff=False):

astropy/utils/tests/test_introspection.py

@@ -73,3 +73,42 @@ def test_minversion():
         assert minversion(test_module, version)
     for version in bad_versions:
         assert not minversion(test_module, version)
+
+
+def test_minversion_dev_version():
+    """Test minversion with dev version strings (issue from PR #7647)"""
+    from types import ModuleType
+
+    # Test the specific case that was failing
+    test_module = ModuleType(str("test_module"))
+    test_module.__version__ = '1.14.3'
+    assert minversion(test_module, '1.14dev')
+
+    # Test without the patch version - in PEP 440, '1.14' is a stable release
+    # which is > '1.14dev' (dev version comes before release)
+    test_module.__version__ = '1.14'
+    assert minversion(test_module, '1.14dev')
+
+    # Test more dev version scenarios
+    test_module.__version__ = '1.15.0'
+    assert minversion(test_module, '1.14dev')
+    assert minversion(test_module, '1.15dev')
+
+    # Test with rc versions
+    test_module.__version__ = '1.14.3'
+    assert minversion(test_module, '1.14rc1')
+
+    # Test dev version being checked against stable
+    test_module.__version__ = '1.14dev'
+    assert not minversion(test_module, '1.14.3')
+
+    # Test alpha/beta versions
+    test_module.__version__ = '1.14.3'
+    assert minversion(test_module, '1.14a1')
+    assert minversion(test_module, '1.14b1')
+
+    # Test with inclusive=False
+    test_module.__version__ = '1.14.3'
+    assert minversion(test_module, '1.14dev', inclusive=False)
+    assert minversion(test_module, '1.14.2', inclusive=False)
+    assert not minversion(test_module, '1.14.3', inclusive=False)