sort
(1g)
Name
sort - sort lines of text files
Synopsis
sort [OPTION]... [FILE]...
sort [OPTION]... --files0-from=F
Description
User Commands SORT(1)
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 out-
put.
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, ver-
sion -V
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User Commands SORT(1)
-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
--debug
annotate the part of the line used to sort, and warn
about questionable usage to stderr
--files0-from=F
read input from the files specified by NUL-terminated
names in file F; If F is - then read names from stan-
dard input
-k, --key=KEYDEF
sort via a key; KEYDEF gives location and type
-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
--parallel=N
change the number of sorts run concurrently to N
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User Commands SORT(1)
-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
KEYDEF is F[.C][OPTS][,F[.C][OPTS]] for start and stop posi-
tion, where F is a field number and C a character position
in the field; both are origin 1, and the stop position
defaults to the line's end. 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 sin-
gle-letter ordering options [bdfgiMhnRrV], 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 suf-
fixes: % 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/core-
utils/>
General help using GNU software: <http://www.gnu.org/geth-
elp/>
Report sort translation bugs to <http://translationpro-
ject.org/team/>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2012 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 redis-
tribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted
by law.
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User Commands SORT(1)
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following
attributes:
+---------------+--------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+--------------------+
|Availability | file/gnu-coreutils |
+---------------+--------------------+
|Stability | Uncommitted |
+---------------+--------------------+
SEE ALSO
The full documentation for sort is maintained as a Texinfo
manual. If the info and sort programs are properly
installed at your site, the command
info coreutils 'sort invocation'
should give you access to the complete manual.
NOTES
This software was built from source available at
https://java.net/projects/solaris-userland. The original
community source was downloaded from
http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/coreutils-8.16.tar.xz
Further information about this software can be found on the
open source community website at http://www.gnu.org/soft-
ware/coreutils/.
GNU coreutils 8.16 Last change: March 2012 4