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Manual Reference Pages  - SORT (1)

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sort - sort lines of text files

CONTENTS

Synopsis
Description
Author
Copyright

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

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

Ordering options:

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

-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’
-n, --numeric-sort
	compare according to string numerical value
-r, --reverse
	reverse the result of comparisons
Other options:
-c, --check
	check whether input is sorted; do not sort
-k, --key=POS1[,POS2]
	start a key at POS1, end it at POS 2 (origin 1)
-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
-u, --unique
	with -c, check for strict ordering; without -c, output only the first of an equal run
-z, --zero-terminated
	end lines with 0 byte, not newline
--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. OPTS is one or more single-letter ordering options, which override global ordering options for that key. If no key is given, use the entire line as the key.

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.

With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

*** 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.

Written by Mike Haertel and Paul Eggert.

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

Copyright © 2004 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 coreutils sort

should give you access to the complete manual.

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