sort(1) DG/UX 5.4 Rel. 2.01 sort(1)
NAME
sort - sort and/or merge files
SYNOPSIS
sort [-cmu] [-ooutput] [-ykmem] [-zrecsz] [-dfiMnr] [-btx] [+pos1
[-pos2]] [files]
DESCRIPTION
Sort sorts lines of all the named files and writes the result on the
standard output. The standard input is read if - is used as a file
name or if no input files are named.
The default sort order is by ASCII code, wherein all capital letters
come before lowercase letters. To get more conventional alphabetical
sorting, use the -f or -d option. Numerical and by-month sorts are
also possible; see the options below.
Comparisons are based on one or more sort keys extracted from each
line of input. By default, there is one sort key: the entire input
line.
The following options alter the default behavior:
-c Check that the input file is sorted according to the ordering
rules; give no output unless the file is out of sort.
-m Merge only, the input files are already sorted.
-u Unique: suppress all but one in each set of lines having equal
keys.
-ooutput
The argument given is the name of an output file to use instead
of the standard output. This file may be the same as one of the
inputs. There may be optional blanks between -o and output.
-ykmem
The amount of main memory used by the sort has a large impact on
its performance. Sorting a small file in a large amount of
memory is a waste. If this option is omitted, sort begins using
a system default memory size, and continues to use more space as
needed. If this option is presented with a value, kmem, sort
will start using that number of kilobytes of memory, unless the
administrative minimum or maximum is violated, in which case the
corresponding extremum will be used. Thus, -y0 is guaranteed to
start with minimum memory. By convention, -y (with no argument)
starts with maximum memory.
-zrecsz
The size of the longest line read is recorded in the sort phase
so buffers can be allocated during the merge phase. If the sort
phase is omitted via the -c or -m options, a popular system
default size will be used. Lines longer than the buffer size
will terminate sort abnormally. Supplying the actual number of
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bytes in the longest line to be merged (or some larger value)
will prevent abnormal termination.
The following options override the default ordering rules.
-M Compare as months. The first three non-blank characters of
the field are folded to upper case and compared so that JAN <
FEB < ... < DEC. Invalid fields compare low to JAN. The -M
option implies the -b option (see above).
-d Dictionary order: only letters, digits and blanks (spaces and
tabs) are significant in comparisons.
-f Fold lower case letters into upper case.
-i Ignore characters outside the ASCII range 040-0176 in non-
numeric comparisons.
-n An initial numeric string, consisting of optional blanks,
optional minus sign, and zero or more digits with optional
decimal point, is sorted by arithmetic value. The -n option
implies the -b option (see below). Note that the -b option is
effective only when restricted sort key specifications are in
effect.
-r Reverse the sense of comparisons.
When ordering options appear before restricted sort key
specifications, the requested ordering rules are applied globally to
all sort keys. When attached to a specific sort key (described
below), the specified ordering options override all global ordering
options for that key.
The notation +pos1 -pos2 restricts a sort key to one beginning at
pos1 and ending at pos2. The characters at positions pos1 and pos2
are included in the sort key (provided that pos2 does not precede
pos1). A missing -pos2 means the end of the line.
Specifying pos1 and pos2 involves the notion of a field, a minimal
sequence of characters followed by a field separator or a new-line.
By default, the first blank (space or tab) of a sequence of blanks
acts as the field separator. All blanks in a sequence of blanks are
considered to be part of the next field; for example, all blanks at
the beginning of a line are considered to be part of the first field.
You can alter the treatment of field separators using these options:
-tx Use x as the field separator character; x is not considered to
be part of a field (although it may be included in a sort key).
Each occurrence of x is significant (e.g., xx delimits an empty
field).
-b Ignore leading blanks when determining the starting and ending
positions of a restricted sort key. If the -b option is
specified before the first +pos1 argument, it will be applied to
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all +pos1 arguments. Otherwise, the b flag may be attached
independently to each +pos1 or -pos2 argument (see below).
Pos1 and pos2 each have the form m.n optionally followed by one or
more of the flags bdfinr. A starting position specified by +m.n is
interpreted to mean the n+1st character in the m+1st field. A
missing .n means .0, indicating the first character of the m+1st
field. If the b flag is in effect, n is counted from the first non-
blank in the m+1st field; +m.0b refers to the first non-blank
character in the m+1st field.
A last position specified by -m.n is interpreted to mean the nth
character (including separators) after the last character of the m th
field. A missing .n means .0, indicating the last character of the
mth field. If the b flag is in effect n is counted from the last
leading blank in the m+1st field; -m.1b refers to the first non-blank
in the m+1st field.
When there are multiple sort keys, later keys are compared only after
all earlier keys compare equal. Lines that otherwise compare equal
are ordered with all bytes significant.
International Features
sort can process characters from multibyte code sets. Specifying the
-o option allows output of characters from multibyte code sets.
Options:
-d No comparison is performed for multibyte characters.
-f Only applies to single byte characters.
-i All multibyte characters are also ignored.
+pos1 n in pos1, pos2 format m.n is the position in the column, not
character, after the last character of the m field.
-pos2 n in pos1, pos2 format m.n is the position in the column, not
character, after the last character of the m field.
-tx A character from a multibyte code set can be specified in x as
the field separator.
Characters from multibyte code sets are collated in code order.
For locales other than C, which do contain multibyte code sets, sort
will collate using the collation rules of the given locale. In this
case, sort uses the strcoll(3C) function to compare entire lines and
individual sort keys.
Most non-C locales do not include space characters or punctuation
characters in their collation tables, so these characters will be
ignored in the strcoll(3C) comparison. This results in sort
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behaving as though the -d (dictionary order) and -b (ignore blanks)
options are specified.
If you are working in a non-C locale and would like traditional sort
behavior, you can set the environment variable LC_COLLATE to C.
EXAMPLES
Sort the contents of infile with the second field as the sort key:
sort +1 -2 infile
Sort, in reverse order, the contents of infile1 and infile2, placing
the output in outfile and using the first character of the second
field as the sort key:
sort -r -o outfile +1.0 -1.2 infile1 infile2
Sort, in reverse order, the contents of infile1 and infile2 using the
first non-blank character of the second field as the sort key:
sort -r +1.0b -1.1b infile1 infile2
Print the password file (passwd(4)) sorted by the numeric user ID
(the third colon-separated field):
sort -t: +2n -3 /etc/passwd
Print the lines of the already sorted file infile, suppressing all
but the first occurrence of lines having the same third field (the
options -um with just one input file make the choice of a unique
representative from a set of equal lines predictable):
sort -um +2 -3 infile
Sort, the contents of infile1 in Spanish order.
LANG=esES; export LANG
sort infile
FILES
/var/tmp/stm???
DIAGNOSTICS
Comments and exits with non-zero status for various trouble
conditions (e.g., when input lines are too long), and for disorder
discovered under the -c option. When the last line of an input file
is missing a new-line character, sort appends one, prints a warning
message, and continues.
Sort does not guarantee preservation of relative line ordering on
equal keys.
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SEE ALSO
comm(1), join(1), uniq(1).
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