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1.1 root 1: .TH SORT 1
2: .CT 1 files
3: .SH NAME
4: sort \- sort and/or merge files
5: .SH SYNOPSIS
6: .B sort
7: [
8: .BI -cmuMbdf\&inrt x
9: ]
10: [
11: .BI + pos1
12: [
13: .BI - pos2
14: ] ...
15: ]
16: [
17: .B -o
18: .I output
19: ]
20: [
21: .I option ...
22: ]
23: [
24: .I file ...
25: ]
26: .SH DESCRIPTION
27: .I Sort\^
28: sorts
29: lines of all the
30: .I files
31: together and writes the result on
32: the standard output.
33: The name
34: .B -
35: means
36: the standard input.
37: If no input files are named, the standard input is sorted.
38: .PP
39: The default sort key is an entire line.
40: Default ordering is
41: lexicographic by bytes in machine
42: collating sequence.
43: The ordering is affected globally by the following options,
44: one or more of which may appear.
45: .TP
46: .B -M
47: Compare as months.
48: The first three
49: non-white space characters
50: of the field
51: are folded
52: to lower case
53: and compared
54: so that
55: .L jan
56: precedes
57: .LR feb ,
58: etc.
59: Invalid fields
60: compare low to
61: .LR jan .
62: .TP
63: .B -b
64: Ignore leading white space (spaces and tabs) in field comparisons.
65: .TP
66: .B -d
67: `Phone directory' order: only letters, digits and white space
68: are significant in comparisons.
69: .TP
70: .B -f
71: Fold upper case
72: letters onto lower case.
73: .TP
74: .B -i
75: Ignore characters outside the
76: .SM ASCII
77: range 040-0176
78: in non-numeric comparisons.
79: .TP
80: .B -n
81: An initial numeric string,
82: consisting of optional white space, optional minus sign,
83: and zero or more digits with optional decimal point,
84: is sorted by arithmetic value.
85: Option
86: .B -n
87: implies option
88: .BR -b .
89: .TP
90: .B -g
91: Numbers, like
92: .B -n
93: but with optional
94: .BR e -style
95: exponents, are sorted by value.
96: .TP
97: .B -r
98: Reverse the sense of comparisons.
99: .TP
100: .BI -t x\^
101: `Tab character' separating fields is
102: .IR x .
103: .PP
104: The notation
105: .BI + "pos1\| " - pos2\^
106: restricts a sort key to a field beginning at
107: .I pos1\^
108: and ending just before
109: .IR pos2 .
110: .I Pos1\^
111: and
112: .I pos2\^
113: each have the form
114: .IB m . n ,
115: optionally followed by one or more of the flags
116: .BR Mbdfginr ,
117: where
118: .I m\^
119: tells a number of fields to skip from the beginning of the line and
120: .I n\^
121: tells a number of characters to skip further.
122: If any flags are present they override all the global
123: ordering options for this key.
124: A missing
125: .BI \&. n\^
126: means
127: .B \&.0;
128: a missing
129: .BI - pos2\^
130: means the end of the line.
131: Under the
132: .BI -t x\^
133: option, fields are strings separated by
134: .IR x ;
135: otherwise fields are
136: non-empty strings separated by white space.
137: White space before a field
138: is part of the field, except under option
139: .BR -b .
140: A
141: .B b
142: flag may be attached independently to
143: .IR pos1
144: and
145: .IR pos2.
146: .PP
147: When there are multiple sort keys, later keys
148: are compared only after all earlier keys
149: compare equal.
150: Lines that otherwise compare equal are ordered
151: with all bytes significant.
152: .PP
153: These option arguments are also understood:
154: .TP
155: .B -c
156: Check that the single input file is sorted according to the ordering rules;
157: give no output unless the file is out of sort.
158: .TP
159: .B -m
160: Merge; the input files are already sorted.
161: .TP
162: .B -u
163: Suppress all but one in each
164: set of equal lines.
165: Ignored bytes
166: and bytes outside keys
167: do not participate in
168: this comparison.
169: .TP
170: .B -o
171: The next argument is the name of an output file
172: to use instead of the standard output.
173: This file may be the same as one of the inputs.
174: .TP
175: .BI -T " tempdir
176: Put temporary files in
177: .I tempdir
178: rather than in (the default)
179: .BR /usr/tmp .
180: .TP
181: .BI -y memory
182: Suggests the use of the specified number of
183: bytes of internal store in hopes of tuning performance;
184: 0 is appropriate for very small files, a missing
185: number for huge ones.
186: .TP
187: .BI -z recsize
188: Provide for abnormally large records;
189: useful only with
190: .B -c
191: and
192: .B -m
193: .SH EXAMPLES
194: .TP
195: .L sort -u +0f +0 list
196: Print in alphabetical order all the unique spellings
197: in a list of words
198: where capitalized words differ from uncapitalized.
199: .TP
200: .L sort -t: +2n /etc/passwd
201: Print the password file
202: .RI ( passwd (5))
203: sorted by userid
204: (the third colon-separated field).
205: .TP
206: .L sort -umM dates
207: Print the first instance of each month in an already sorted file.
208: Options
209: .B -um
210: with just one input file make the choice of a
211: unique representative from a set of equal lines predictable.
212: .TP
213: .L
214: grep -n '^' input | sort -t: +1f +0n | sed 's/[0-9]*://'
215: A stable sort: input lines that compare equal will
216: come out in their original order.
217: .SH FILES
218: .F /usr/tmp/stm???
219: .SH SEE ALSO
220: .IR comm (1),
221: .IR join (1),
222: .IR uniq (1),
223: .IR look (1)
224: .SH DIAGNOSTICS
225: .I Sort
226: comments and exits with non-zero status for various trouble
227: conditions and for disorder discovered under option
228: .BR -c .
229: .SH BUGS
230: Option
231: .B -g
232: compares rounded floating binary values.
233: .br
234: Syntax needs overhauling.
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