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Updated: July 2017
 
 

sort (1g)

Name

sort - sort lines of text files

Synopsis

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

Description

SORT(1)                          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 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

       --debug
              annotate the part of the line used to sort, and warn about ques-
              tionable 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 standard 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

       -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 position, 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 single-let-
       ter 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 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/>
       Report sort translation bugs to <http://translationproject.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  redistribute  it.
       There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.


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/core-
       utils-8.16.tar.xz

       Further information about this software can be found on the open source
       community website at http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/.



GNU coreutils 8.16                March 2012                           SORT(1)