table of contents
SORT(1) | User Commands | SORT(1) |
NAME¶
sort - sort lines of text files
SYNOPSIS¶
sort [OPTION]... [FILE]...
sort [OPTION]... --files0-from=F
DESCRIPTION¶
Write sorted concatenation of all FILE(s) to standard output.
With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.
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'
- -h, --human-numeric-sort
- compare human readable numbers (e.g., 2K 1G)
- -n, --numeric-sort
- compare according to string numerical value
- -R, --random-sort
- shuffle, but group identical keys. See shuf(1)
- --random-source=FILE
- get random bytes from FILE
- -r, --reverse
- reverse the result of comparisons
- --sort=WORD
- sort according to WORD: general-numeric -g, human-numeric -h, month -M, numeric -n, random -R, version -V
- -V, --version-sort
- natural sort of (version) numbers within text
Other options:
- --batch-size=NMERGE
- merge at most NMERGE inputs at once; for more use temp files
- -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
- --debug
- annotate the part of the line used to sort, and warn about questionable usage to stderr
- --files0-from=F
- read input from the files specified by NUL-terminated names in file F; If F is - then read names from standard input
- -k, --key=KEYDEF
- sort via a key; KEYDEF gives location and type
- -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
- --parallel=N
- change the number of sorts run concurrently to N
- -u, --unique
- with -c, check for strict ordering; without -c, output only the first of an equal run
- -z, --zero-terminated
- line delimiter is NUL, not newline
- --help
- display this help and exit
- --version
- output version information and exit
KEYDEF is F[.C][OPTS][,F[.C][OPTS]] for start and stop position, where F is a field number and C a character position in the field; both are origin 1, and the stop position defaults to the line's end. 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 [bdfgiMhnRrV], which override global ordering options for that key. If no key is given, use the entire line as the key. Use --debug to diagnose incorrect key usage.
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, R, Q.
*** 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.
AUTHOR¶
Written by Mike Haertel and Paul Eggert.
REPORTING BUGS¶
GNU coreutils online help:
<https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to
<https://translationproject.org/team/>
COPYRIGHT¶
Copyright © 2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License
GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later
<https://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.
SEE ALSO¶
Full documentation
<https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/sort>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) sort invocation'
March 2024 | GNU coreutils 9.4 |