SORT(1)                 GENIX Programmer's Manual                 SORT(1)



      NAME
           sort - sort or merge files

      SYNOPSIS
           sort [ -mubdfinrtx ] [ +pos1  [ -pos2 ] ] ...  [  -o  name  ]  [  -T
           directory ] [ name ] ...

      DESCRIPTION
           Sort sorts lines of all the named  files  together  and  writes  the
           result  on  the  standard  output.   The name `-' means the standard
           input.  If no input files are named, the standard input is sorted.

           The default sort key is an entire line.  Default ordering is lexico-
           graphic  by  bytes  in  machine collating sequence.  The ordering is
           affected globally by the following options, one or more of which may
           appear.

           b    Ignore leading blanks (spaces and tabs) in field comparisons.

           d    `Dictionary' order: only letters, digits and blanks are  signi-
                ficant in comparisons.

           f    Fold upper case letters onto lower 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.  Option n implies
                option b.

           r    Reverse the sense of comparisons.

           tx   `Tab character' separating fields is x.

           The notation +pos1 -pos2 restricts a sort key to a  field  beginning
           at  pos1  and  ending just before pos2.  Pos1 and pos2 each have the
           form m.n, optionally followed by one or more of  the  flags  bdfinr,
           where  m  tells a number of fields to skip from the beginning of the
           line and n tells a number of characters to  skip  further.   If  any
           flags  are present they override all the global ordering options for
           this key.  If the b option is in effect n is counted from the  first
           nonblank in the field; b is attached independently to pos2.  A miss-
           ing .n means .0; a missing -pos2 means the end of the  line.   Under
           the  -tx option, fields are strings separated by x; otherwise fields
           are nonempty nonblank strings separated by blanks.

           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.




      Printed 11/16/83                                                        1

      SORT(1)                 GENIX Programmer's Manual                 SORT(1)



           These option arguments are also understood:

           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.

           o    The next argument 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.

           T    The next argument is the name of a directory in which temporary
                files should be made.

           u    Suppress all but one in each set of equal lines.  Ignored bytes
                and bytes outside keys do not participate in this comparison.

           Examples. Print in alphabetical order all the unique spellings in  a
           list of words.  Capitalized words differ from uncapitalized.

                   sort -u +0f +0 list

           Print the password file (passwd(5)) sorted by user  id  number  (the
           3rd colon-separated field).

                   sort -t: +2n /etc/passwd

           Print the first instance of each month in an already sorted file  of
           (month  day) entries.  The options -um with just one input file make
           the choice of a unique representative from  a  set  of  equal  lines
           predictable.

                   sort -um +0 -1 dates

      FILES
           /usr/tmp/stm*, /tmp/*    first and second tries for temporary files

      SEE ALSO
           uniq(1), comm(1), rev(1), join(1)

      DIAGNOSTICS
           Comments and exits with nonzero status for  various  trouble  condi-
           tions and for disorder discovered under option -c.

      BUGS
           Very long lines are silently truncated.









      Printed 11/16/83                                                        2