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man page(1) manual page Table of Contents

Name

sort - sort lines of text files

Synopsis

sort [OPTION]... [FILE]...

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) < â€˜JANâ€™ < ... < â€˜DECâ€™
-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)
-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.

LinuxGuide.it > Linux Man Page: "sort"

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