SORT("1") manual page
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sort - sort lines of text files
sort [OPTION]... [FILE]...
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’
- -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 (default /dev/urandom)
- --sort=WORD
- sort according
to WORD: general-numeric -g, month -M, numeric -n, random -R
- -r, --reverse
- reverse
the result of comparisons
Other options:
- -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
- -k, --key=POS1[,POS2]
- start a key at
POS1, end it at POS2 (origin 1)
- -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.
Written
by Mike Haertel and Paul Eggert.
Report bugs to <bug-coreutils@gnu.org>.
Copyright © 2008 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.
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.
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