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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 -cmusMbdf\&inrt x
9: ]
10: [
11: .B -o
12: .I output
13: ]
14: [
15: .I option ...
16: ]
17: [
18: .I file ...
19: ]
20: .SH DESCRIPTION
21: .I Sort\^
22: sorts
23: lines of all the
24: .I files
25: together and writes the result on
26: the standard output.
27: The name
28: .B -
29: means
30: the standard input.
31: If no input files are named, the standard input is sorted.
32: .PP
33: The default sort key is an entire line.
34: Default ordering is
35: lexicographic by bytes in machine
36: collating sequence.
37: The ordering is affected globally by the following options,
38: one or more of which may appear.
39: .TP
40: .B -b
41: Ignore leading white space (spaces and tabs) in field comparisons.
42: .TP
43: .B -d
44: `Phone directory' order: only letters, digits and white space
45: are significant in string comparisons.
46: .TP
47: .B -f
48: Fold lower case
49: letters onto upper case.
50: .TP
51: .B -i
52: Ignore characters outside the
53: .SM ASCII
54: range 040-0176
55: in string comparisons.
56: .TP
57: .B -n
58: An initial numeric string,
59: consisting of optional white space, optional sign, and
60: a nonempty string of digits with optional decimal point,
61: is sorted by value.
62: .TP
63: .B -g
64: Numeric, like
65: .BR -n ,
66: with
67: .BR e -style
68: exponents allowed.
69: .TP
70: .B -M
71: Compare as month names.
72: The first three
73: characters after optional white space
74: are folded to lower case and compared.
75: Invalid fields compare low to
76: .LR jan .
77: .TP
78: .B -r
79: Reverse the sense of comparisons.
80: .TP
81: .BI -t x\^
82: `Tab character' separating fields is
83: .IR x .
84: .TP
85: .BI -k " pos1" , pos2
86: Restrict the sort key to a string beginning at
87: .I pos1\^
88: and ending at
89: .IR pos2 .
90: .I Pos1\^
91: and
92: .I pos2\^
93: each have the form
94: .IB m . n ,
95: optionally followed by one or more of the flags
96: .BR Mbdfginr ;
97: .I m\^
98: counts fields from the beginning of the line and
99: .I n\^
100: counts characters from the beginning of the field.
101: If any flags are present they override all the global
102: ordering options for this key.
103: If
104: .BI \&. n\^
105: is missing from
106: .I pos1,
107: it is taken to be 1; if missing from
108: .IR pos2,
109: it is taken to be the end of the field.
110: If
111: .I pos2
112: is missing, it is taken to be end of line.
113: .TP
114: .BI -a " pos1" , pos2
115: .IB Pos1 , pos2
116: designates an accumulating
117: .BR -n -style
118: field, disjoint from the sort key.
119: When the keys of two records compare equal,
120: discard the second and replace the
121: accumulating field in the first with the sum of
122: that field in both.
123: The receiving field must be large enough for the sum
124: to fit without destroying any field separator.
125: The sum has a ones digit always, a decimal point if
126: either addend has one, a fraction part as long as
127: that of either addend, leading zeros padded to full
128: field width if either addend has a leading zero
129: before the ones digit, and a
130: .B +
131: sign if either addend has a
132: .B +
133: sign and the sum is not negative.
134: .PP
135: Under option
136: .BI -t x\^
137: fields are strings separated by
138: .IR x ;
139: otherwise fields are
140: non-empty strings separated by white space.
141: White space before a field
142: is part of the field, except under option
143: .BR -b .
144: A
145: .B b
146: flag may be attached independently to
147: .IR pos1
148: and
149: .IR pos2.
150: .PP
151: When there are multiple sort keys, later keys
152: are compared only after all earlier keys
153: compare equal.
154: Except under option
155: .BR -s ,
156: lines with all keys equal are ordered
157: with all bytes significant.
158: .PP
159: Single-letter options may be combined into a single
160: string, such as
161: .BR -cnrt: .
162: The option combination
163: .B -di
164: and the combination of
165: .B -n
166: with any of
167: .BR -diM
168: are improper.
169: .PP
170: These option arguments are also understood:
171: .TP
172: .B -c
173: Check that the single input file is sorted according to the ordering rules;
174: give no output unless the file is out of sort.
175: .TP
176: .B -m
177: Merge; the input files are already sorted.
178: .TP
179: .B -u
180: Unique. Keep only the first of two lines
181: that compare equal on all keys.
182: Implies
183: .BR -s .
184: .TP
185: .B -s
186: Stable sort.
187: When all keys compare equal, preserve input order.
188: Unaffected by
189: .BR -r .
190: .TP
191: .BI -o " output
192: Place output in a designated file
193: instead of on the standard output.
194: This file may be the same as one of the inputs.
195: The option may appear among the
196: .I file
197: arguments, except after
198: .BR -- .
199: .TP
200: .BI + pos1 " -" pos2
201: Classical alternative to
202: .BR -k ,
203: with counting from 0 instead of 1, and
204: .I pos2
205: designating next-after-last instead of last character of the key.
206: A missing character count in
207: .I pos2
208: means 0, which in turn excludes any
209: .B -t
210: tab character from the end of the key.
211: Thus
212: .B "+1\ -1.3"
213: means the same as
214: .B -k\ 2,2.3
215: and
216: .B "+1r\ -3"
217: means the same as
218: .BR "-k\ 2r,3" .
219: .PP
220: Options
221: .BR -a ,
222: .BR -g ,
223: .BR -M ,
224: and
225: .BR -s
226: are not in the Posix standard, nor are
227: the following tuning options.
228: .TP
229: .BI -T " tempdir
230: Put temporary files in
231: .I tempdir
232: rather than in
233: .BR /usr/tmp .
234: .TP
235: .BI -y " n"
236: Use up to
237: .I n
238: bytes of internal store, or a huge number if
239: .IR n =0.
240: .TP
241: .B -w " n"
242: Merge up to
243: .I n
244: files at a time.
245: .ig
246: .TP
247: .BI -z recsize
248: Provide for abnormally large records;
249: useful only with
250: .B -c
251: and
252: .B -m
253: ..
254: .SH EXAMPLES
255: .TP
256: .B sort -u -k1f -k1 list
257: Print in alphabetical order all the unique spellings
258: in a list of words
259: where capitalized words differ from uncapitalized.
260: .TP
261: .B sort -t: -k3n /etc/passwd
262: Print the password file
263: .RI ( passwd (5))
264: sorted by userid
265: (the third colon-separated field).
266: .TP
267: .B sort -umM dates
268: Print the first instance of each month in an already sorted file.
269: .TP
270: .B sort -k1,1 -a2,2 items_and_costs
271: Reduce a file of items (field 1) and costs (field 2) to
272: a summary file of total cost per type of item.
273: .SH FILES
274: .F /usr/tmp/stm???
275: .SH SEE ALSO
276: .IR comm (1),
277: .IR join (1),
278: .IR uniq (1),
279: .IR look (1)
280: .SH DIAGNOSTICS
281: .I Sort
282: comments and exits with non-zero status for various trouble
283: conditions and for disorder discovered under option
284: .BR -c .
285: Overflow in a
286: .B -a
287: field warns and leaves
288: the record uncombined.
289: .SH BUGS
290: When
291: .BR -o
292: overwrites an input file,
293: premature termination by interrupt,
294: crash or file-system overflow can destroy data.
295: .br
296: Overflow in any but the first of multiple
297: .B -a
298: fields is fatal.
299: .br
300: Perhaps fields delimited by
301: .BR -t
302: should grow to avoid
303: .B -a
304: overflows.
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