sort - sort lines of text files
sort [OPTION]... [FILE]...
sort [OPTION]... --files0-from=F
Write sorted concatenation of all FILE(s) to standard output.
With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short
options too. Ordering options:
- -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'
- -h,
--human-numeric-sort
- compare human readable numbers (e.g., 2K 1G)
- -n,
--numeric-sort
- compare according to string numerical value
- -R,
--random-sort
- shuffle, but group identical keys. See shuf(1)
- --random-source=FILE
- get random bytes from FILE
- -r, --reverse
- reverse the result of comparisons
- --sort=WORD
- sort according to WORD: general-numeric -g, human-numeric
-h, month -M, numeric -n, random -R, version
-V
- -V,
--version-sort
- natural sort of (version) numbers within text
Other options:
- --batch-size=NMERGE
- merge at most NMERGE inputs at once; for more use temp files
- -c, --check,
--check=diagnose-first
- check for sorted input; do not sort
- -C,
--check=quiet, --check=silent
- like -c, but do not report first bad line
- --compress-program=PROG
- compress temporaries with PROG; decompress them with PROG -d
- --debug
- annotate the part of the line used to sort, and warn about questionable
usage to stderr
- --files0-from=F
- read input from the files specified by NUL-terminated names in file F; If
F is - then read names from standard input
- -k,
--key=KEYDEF
- sort via a key; KEYDEF gives location and type
- -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
- --parallel=N
- change the number of sorts run concurrently to N
- -u, --unique
- with -c, check for strict ordering; without -c, output only
the first of an equal run
- -z,
--zero-terminated
- line delimiter is NUL, not newline
- --help
- display this help and exit
- --version
- output version information and exit
KEYDEF is F[.C][OPTS][,F[.C][OPTS]] for start and stop position,
where F is a field number and C a character position in the field; both are
origin 1, and the stop position defaults to the line's end. If neither
-t nor -b is in effect, characters in a field are counted from
the beginning of the preceding whitespace. OPTS is one or more single-letter
ordering options [bdfgiMhnRrV], which override global ordering options for
that key. If no key is given, use the entire line as the key. Use
--debug to diagnose incorrect key usage.
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.
*** 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.
GNU coreutils online help:
<https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to
<https://translationproject.org/team/>
Copyright © 2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License
GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later
<https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO
WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
shuf(1), uniq(1)
Full documentation
<https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/sort>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) sort invocation'