SORT(1)                 COMMAND REFERENCE                 SORT(1)



NAME
     sort - sort or merge files

SYNOPSIS
     sort [ -bcdfimnrutx ][ +pos1  [ -pos2 ] ] ...  [ -o name] [
     -T directory][name]...

DESCRIPTION
     Sort sorts lines of all the named files together and writes
     the result on the standard output. The name - (dash) means
     the standard input.  If no input files are named, the
     standard input is sorted.

     The default sort key is an entire line.  Default ordering is
     lexicographic by bytes in machine collating sequence.

     The notation +pos1 -pos2 restricts a sort key to a field
     beginning at pos1 and ending just before pos2.  Pos1 and
     pos2 each have the form m.n, optionally followed by one or
     more of the flags bdfinr, where m tells the number of fields
     to skip from the beginning of the line and n tells the
     number of characters to skip further.  If any flags are
     present they override all the global ordering options for
     this key. If the b option is in effect, n is counted from
     the first nonblank in the field; b is attached independently
     to pos2.  A missing .n means .0; a missing -pos2 means the
     end of the line. Under the -tx option, fields are strings
     separated by x; otherwise fields are nonempty, nonblank
     strings separated by blanks.

     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.

OPTIONS
     The ordering is affected globally by the following options,
     one or more of which may appear.

     -b Ignore leading blanks (spaces and tabs) in field
        comparisons.

     -c Check that the input file is sorted according to the
        ordering rules; give no output unless the file is out of
        sort. Only one file may be checked at a time.

     -d Dictionary order: only letters, digits, and blanks are
        significant in comparisons.

     -f Fold uppercase letters onto lowercase.

     -i Ignore characters outside the ASCII range 040-0176 in



Printed 4/6/89                                                  1

SORT(1)                 COMMAND REFERENCE                 SORT(1)



        nonnumeric comparisons.

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

     -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.
        Option -n implies option -b.

     -o The next argument 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.

     -r Reverse the sense of comparisons.

     -tx
        The tab character separating fields is x.

     -u Suppress all but one in each set of equal lines.  Ignored
        bytes and bytes outside keys do not participate in this
        comparison.

     -T The next argument is the name of a directory in which
        temporary files should be made.

EXAMPLES
     Print in alphabetical order all the unique spellings in a
     list of words.  Capitalized words differ from uncapitalized.

          sort -u +0f +0 list

     Print the password file (passwd(5)) sorted by user ID number
     (the third colon-separated field).

          sort -t: +2n /etc/passwd

     Print the first instance of each month in an already sorted
     file of (month day) entries.  The options -um with just one
     input file make the choice of a unique representative from a
     set of equal lines predictable.

          sort -um +0 -1 dates

FILES
     /usr/tmp/stm*
                  First and second tries for temporary files.

DIAGNOSTICS
     Comments and exits with nonzero status for various trouble
     conditions and for disorder discovered under option -c are
     provided.




Printed 4/6/89                                                  2

SORT(1)                 COMMAND REFERENCE                 SORT(1)



RETURN VALUE
     [NO_ERRS]      Command completed without error.

     [NP_ERR]       An error occurred that was not a system
                    error.  Execution terminated.

     [P_WARN]       A system error occurred. Execution continues.
                    See intro(2) for more information on system
                    errors.

     [P_ERR]        A system error occurred. Execution
                    terminated.  See intro(2) for more
                    information on system errors.

CAVEATS
     Lines over 1024 characters in length may be silently
     truncated.

     No more than nine keys may be specified for sorting.

SEE ALSO
     awk(1), comm(1), cut(1), egrep(1), fgrep(1), grep(1),
     join(1), look(1), paste(1), rev(1), and uniq(1).
































Printed 4/6/89                                                  3

%%index%%
na:240,78;
sy:318,445;
de:763,1757;
op:2520,752;3584,1027;
ex:4611,703;
fi:5314,158;
di:5472,286;
rv:6070,632;
ca:6702,212;
se:6914,331;
%%index%%000000000170