sort
sort, merge, or sequence check text files
TLDR
Sort a file in ascending order
Sort a file in descending order
Sort a file in case-insensitive way
Sort a file using numeric rather than alphabetic order
Sort /etc/passwd by the 3rd field of each line numerically, using ":" as a field separator
Sort a file preserving only unique lines
Sort a file, printing the output to the specified output file (can be used to sort a file in-place)
Sort numbers with exponents
SYNOPSIS
sort [OPTION]... [FILE]...
sort [OPTION]... --files0-from=F
DESCRIPTION
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.
REPORTING BUGS
GNU coreutils online help:
<https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to
<https://translationproject.org/team/>
COPYRIGHT
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.
SEE ALSO
shuf(1), uniq(1) Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/sort> or available locally via: info '(coreutils) sort invocation'
AUTHOR
Written by Mike Haertel and Paul Eggert.