


      SORT(1)                     (UNIX 5.2)                    SORT(1)



      NAME
           sort - sort and/or merge files

      SYNTAX
           sort [-cmu] [-ooutput] [-ykmem] [-zrecsz] [-dfiMnr] [-btx]
           [+pos1 [-pos2]] [files]

      DESCRIPTION
           Sort sorts lines of all the named files together and writes
           the result on the standard output.  The standard input is
           read if - is used as a file name or no input files are
           named.

           Comparisons are based on one or more sort keys extracted
           from each line of input.  By default, there is one sort key,
           the entire input line, and ordering is lexicographic by
           bytes in machine collating sequence.

           The following options alter the default behavior:

           -c   Check that the input file is sorted according to the
                ordering rules; give no output unless the file is out
                of sort.

           -m   Merge only, the input files are already sorted.

           -u   Unique: suppress all but one in each set of lines
                having equal keys.

           -ooutput
                The argument given is the name of an output file to use
                instead of the standard output.  This file may be the
                same as one of the inputs.  There may be optional
                blanks between -o and output.

           -ykmem
                The amount of main memory used by the sort has a large
                impact on its performance.  Sorting a small file in a
                large amount of memory is a waste.  If this option is
                omitted, sort begins using a system default memory
                size, and continues to use more space as needed.  If
                this option is presented with a value, kmem, sort will
                start using that number of kilobytes of memory, unless
                the administrative minimum or maximum is violated, in
                which case the corresponding extremum will be used.
                Thus, -y0 is guaranteed to start with minimum memory.
                By convention, -y (with no argument) starts with
                maximum memory.  The minimum amount is 32 Kbytes; the
                maximum is 32 Mbytes.

           -zrecsz
                The size of the longest line read is recorded in the



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                sort phase so buffers can be allocated during the merge
                phase.  If the sort phase is omitted via the -c or -m
                options, a popular system default size will be used.
                Lines longer than the buffer size will cause sort to
                terminate abnormally.  Supplying the actual number of
                bytes in the longest line to be merged (or some larger
                value) will prevent abnormal termination.

           The following options override the default ordering rules.

           -d   ``Dictionary'' order: only letters, digits and blanks
                (spaces and tabs) are significant in comparisons.

           -f   Fold lower case letters into upper case.

           -i   Ignore characters outside the ASCII range 040-0176 in
                non-numeric comparisons.

           -M   Compare as months.  The first three non-blank
                characters of the field are folded to upper case and
                compared so that ``JAN'' < ``FEB'' < ... < ``DEC''.
                Invalid fields compare low to ``JAN''.  The -M option
                implies the -b option (see below).

           -n   An initial numeric string, consisting of optional
                blanks, optional minus sign, and zero or more digits
                with optional decimal point, is sorted by arithmetic
                value.  The -n option implies the -b option (see
                below).  Note that the -b option is only effective when
                restricted sort key specifications are in effect.

           -r   Reverse the sense of comparisons.

           When ordering options appear before restricted sort key
           specifications, the requested ordering rules are applied
           globally to all sort keys.  When attached to a specific sort
           key (described below), the specified ordering options
           override all global ordering options for that key.

           The notation +pos1 -pos2 restricts a sort key to one
           beginning at pos1 and ending at pos2.  The characters at
           positions pos1 and pos2 are included in the sort key
           (provided that pos2 does not precede pos1).  A missing -pos2
           means the end of the line.

           Specifying pos1 and pos2 involves the notion of a field, a
           minimal sequence of characters followed by a field separator
           or a new-line.  By default, the first blank (space or tab)
           of a sequence of blanks acts as the field separator.  All
           blanks in a sequence of blanks are considered to be part of
           the next field; for example, all blanks at the beginning of
           a line are considered to be part of the first field.  The



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           treatment of field separators can be altered using the
           options:

           -tx  Use x as the field separator character; x is not
                considered to be part of a field (although it may be
                included in a sort key).  Each occurrence of x is
                significant (e.g., xx delimits an empty field).

           -b   Ignore leading blanks when determining the starting and
                ending positions of a restricted sort key.  If the -b
                option is specified before the first +pos1 argument, it
                will be applied to all +pos1 arguments.  Otherwise, the
                b flag may be attached independently to each +pos1 or
                -pos2 argument (see below).

           Pos1 and pos2 each have the form m.n optionally followed by
           one or more of the flags bdfinr.  A starting position
           specified by +m.n is interpreted to mean the n+1st character
           in the m+1st field.  A missing .n means .0, indicating the
           first character of the m+1st field.  If the b flag is in
           effect n is counted from the first non-blank in the m+1st
           field; +m.0b refers to the first non-blank character in the
           m+1st field.

           A last position specified by -m.n is interpreted to mean the
           nth character (including separators) after the last
           character of the m th field.  A missing .n means .0,
           indicating the last character of the mth field.  If the b
           flag is in effect n is counted from the last leading blank
           in the m+1st field; -m.1b refers to the first non-blank in
           the m+1st field.

           When there are multiple sort keys, later keys are compared
           only after all earlier keys compare equal.  Lines that
           otherwise compare equal are ordered with all bytes
           significant.

      EXAMPLES
           Sort the contents of infile with the second field as the
           sort key:

                sort +1 -2 infile

           Sort, in reverse order, the contents of infile1 and infile2,
           placing the output in outfile and using the first character
           of the second field as the sort key:

                sort -r -o outfile +1.0 -1.2 infile1 infile2

           Sort, in reverse order, the contents of infile1 and infile2
           using the first non-blank character of the second field as
           the sort key:



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                sort -r +1.0b -1.1b infile1 infile2

           Print the password file (passwd(4)) sorted by the numeric
           user ID (the third colon-separated field):

                sort -t: +2n -3 /etc/passwd

           Print the lines of the already sorted file infile,
           suppressing all but the first occurrence of lines having the
           same third field (the options -um with just one input file
           make the choice of a unique representative from a set of
           equal lines predictable):

                sort -um +2 -3 infile

      FILES
           /usr/tmp/stm???

      SEE ALSO
           comm(1), join(1), uniq(1).

      DIAGNOSTICS
           Comments and exits with non-zero status for various trouble
           conditions (e.g., when input lines are too long), and for
           disorder discovered under the -c option.  When the last line
           of an input file is missing a new-line character, sort
           appends one, prints a warning message, and continues.




























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