NAME

sort − sort or merge files

SYNOPSIS

sort [ +pos1 ] [ −pos2 ] [ −b ] [ −c ] [ −d ] [ −f ] [ −i ] [ −m ] [ −n ] [ −o name ] [ −r ] [ −tx ]

[ −T dir ] [ −u ] filename ...

DESCRIPTION

sort sorts and merges lines the named files, and writes the result on the standard output.  The name ‘−’ means the standard input.  If no input file’s are named, the standard input is sorted.

The default sort key is an entire line.  Default ordering is lexicographic by bytes in machine collating sequence. 

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. 

OPTIONS

+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 is the number of fields to skip from the beginning of the line and n tells a number of characters to skip further. 

If other options are present that affect the global ordering, they override any flags 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 missing .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.

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

−c Check that the input file is sorted according to the ordering rules; give no output unless the file is out of sort. 

−d ‘Dictionary’ order: only letters, digits and blanks are significant in comparisons. 

−f Fold upper case letters onto lower case. 

−i Ignore characters outside the ASCII range 040-0176 in nonnumeric comparisons. 

−m Merge only, the input files are already sorted. 

−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. 

o name
name 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. 

−r Reverse the sense of comparisons. 

−tx ‘Tab character’ separating fields is x.

T dir dir 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 conditions and for disorder discovered under option −c. 

BUGS

Very long lines are silently truncated. 

Sun Release 3.0β  —  Last change: 8 August 1983