SORT

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: December 2009
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NAME

sort - sort lines of text files

SYNOPSIS

sort [OPTION]... [FILE]...
sort [OPTION]... --files0-from=F

DESCRIPTION

Write sorted concatenation of all FILE(s) to standard output.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. Ordering options:

-b, --ignore-leading-blanks: ignore leading blanks
-d, --dictionary-order: consider only blanks and alphanumeric characters
-f, --ignore-case: fold lower case to upper case characters
-g, --general-numeric-sort: compare according to general numerical value
-i, --ignore-nonprinting: consider only printable characters
-M, --month-sort: compare (unknown) < `JAN' < ... < `DEC'
-h, --human-numeric-sort: compare human readable numbers (e.g., 2K 1G)
-n, --numeric-sort: compare according to string numerical value
-R, --random-sort: sort by random hash of keys
--random-source=FILE: get random bytes from FILE
-r, --reverse: reverse the result of comparisons
--sort=WORD: sort according to WORD: general-numeric -g, human-numeric -h, month -M, numeric -n, random -R, version -V
-V, --version-sort: natural sort of (version) numbers within text

Other options:

--batch-size=NMERGE: merge at most NMERGE inputs at once; for more use temp files
-c, --check, --check=diagnose-first: check for sorted input; do not sort
-C, --check=quiet, --check=silent: like -c, but do not report first bad line
--compress-program=PROG: compress temporaries with PROG; decompress them with PROG -d
--files0-from=F: read input from the files specified by NUL-terminated names in file F; If F is - then read names from standard input
-k, --key=POS1[,POS2]: start a key at POS1 (origin 1), end it at POS2 (default end of line)
-m, --merge: merge already sorted files; do not sort
-o, --output=FILE: write result to FILE instead of standard output
-s, --stable: stabilize sort by disabling last-resort comparison
-S, --buffer-size=SIZE: use SIZE for main memory buffer
-t, --field-separator=SEP: use SEP instead of non-blank to blank transition
-T, --temporary-directory=DIR: use DIR for temporaries, not $TMPDIR or /tmp; multiple options specify multiple directories
-u, --unique: with -c, check for strict ordering; without -c, output only the first of an equal run
-z, --zero-terminated: end lines with 0 byte, not newline
--help: display this help and exit
--version: output version information and exit

POS is F[.C][OPTS], where F is the field number and C the character position in the field; both are origin 1. If neither -t nor -b is in effect, characters in a field are counted from the beginning of the preceding whitespace. OPTS is one or more single-letter ordering options, which override global ordering options for that key. If no key is given, use the entire line as the key.

SIZE may be followed by the following multiplicative suffixes: % 1% of memory, b 1, K 1024 (default), and so on for M, G, T, P, E, Z, Y.

With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

*** WARNING *** The locale specified by the environment affects sort order. Set LC_ALL=C to get the traditional sort order that uses native byte values.

AUTHOR

Written by Mike Haertel and Paul Eggert.

REPORTING BUGS

Report sort bugs to bug-coreutils@gnu.org
GNU coreutils home page: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.