SORT("1") manual page

Table of Contents

## Name

sort - sort lines of text files

## Synopsis

sort [OPTION]... [FILE]...

## Description

Write sorted concatenation of all FILE(s) to standard output.

+POS1 [-POS2]
  start a key at POS1, end it *before* POS2 (obsolescent)
field numbers and character offsets are numbered
  starting with zero (contrast with the -k option)
-b
  ignore leading blanks in sort fields or keys
-c
  check if given files already sorted, do not sort
-d
  consider only [a-zA-Z0-9 ] characters in keys
-f
  fold lower case to upper case characters in keys
-g
  compare according to general numerical value, imply -b
-i
  consider only [ 40- 176] characters in keys
-k POS1[,POS2]
  start a key at POS1, end it *at* POS2
field numbers and character offsets are numbered
  starting with one (contrast with zero-based +POS form)
-m
  merge already sorted files, do not sort
-M
  compare (unknown) < `JAN' < ... < `DEC', imply -b
-n
  compare according to string numerical value, imply -b
-o FILE
  write result on FILE instead of standard output
-r
  reverse the result of comparisons
-s
  stabilize sort by disabling last resort comparison
-t SEP
  use SEParator instead of non- to whitespace transition
-T DIRECTORY
  use DIRECTORY for temporary files, not $TMPDIR or /tmp
-u
  with -c, check for strict ordering; with -m, only output the first of an equal sequence
-z
  end lines with 0 byte, not newline, for find -print0
--help
  display this help and exit
--version
  output version information and exit

POS is F[.C][OPTS], where F is the field number and C the character position in the field, both counted from one with -k, from zero with the obsolescent form. OPTS is made up of one or more of Mbdfinr; this effectively disables global -Mbdfinr settings for that key. If no key is given, use the entire line as the key. With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

## Reporting Bugs

Report bugs to <bug-textutils@gnu.org>.

## See Also

The full documentation for sort is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and sort programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info sort

should give you access to the complete manual.

## Copyright

Copyright © 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Table of Contents

- Name
- Synopsis
- Description
- Reporting Bugs
- See Also
- Copyright