SORT

sort ? sort lines of text files

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

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 [\040-\0176] 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.

Written by Mike Haertel.

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

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.

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.