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SORT(1)								       SORT(1)

NAME
       sort - sort and/or merge files

SYNOPSIS
       sort [ -cmuMbdfinrwtx ] [ +pos1 [ -pos2 ] ...  ] ...  [ -k pos1 [ ,pos2
       ] ] ...
	     [ -o output ] [ -T dir ...	 ] [ option ...	 ] [ file ...  ]

DESCRIPTION
       Sort sorts lines of all the files together and writes the result on the
       standard	 output.   If  no input files are named, the standard input is
       sorted.

       The default sort key is an entire line.	Default	 ordering  is  lexico‐
       graphic	by  runes.  The ordering is affected globally by the following
       options, one or more of which may appear.

       -M     Compare as months.  The first three non-white  space  characters
	      of  the field are folded to upper case and compared so that pre‐
	      cedes etc.  Invalid fields compare low to

       -b     Ignore leading white space (spaces and tabs)  in	field  compar‐
	      isons.

       -d     `Phone  directory' order: only letters, accented letters, digits
	      and white space are significant in comparisons.

       -f     Fold lower case letters onto upper  case.	  Accented  characters
	      are folded to their non-accented upper case form.

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

       -w     Like -i, but ignore only tabs and spaces.

       -n     An initial numeric string, consisting of optional	 white	space,
	      optional	plus  or  minus	 sign,	and  zero  or more digits with
	      optional decimal point, is sorted by arithmetic value.

       -g     Numbers, like -n but with optional e-style exponents, are sorted
	      by value.

       -r     Reverse the sense of comparisons.

       -tx    `Tab character' separating fields is x.

       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 Mbdfginr, where m
       tells a number of fields to skip from the beginning of the line	and  n
       tells a number of characters to skip further.  If any flags are present
       they override all the global ordering options for this key.  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  non-
       empty  strings separated by white space.	 White space before a field is
       part of the field, except under option -b.  A b flag  may  be  attached
       independently to pos1 and pos2.

       The  notation -k pos1[,pos2] is how POSIX sort defines fields: pos1 and
       pos2 have the same format but different meanings.  The value  of	 m  is
       origin 1 instead of origin 0 and a missing .n in pos2 is the end of the
       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.

       These option arguments are also understood:

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

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

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

       -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.

       -Tdir	  Put temporary files in dir rather than in /tmp.

EXAMPLES
       Print in alphabetical order all the unique spellings
	      in a list of words where capitalized words differ	 from  uncapi‐
	      talized.

       Print the users file
	      sorted by user name (the second colon-separated field).

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

       grep -n '^' input | sort -t: +1f +0n | sed 's/[0-9]*://'
	      A stable sort: input lines that compare equal will come  out  in
	      their original order.

FILES
       /tmp/sort.<pid>.<ordinal>

SOURCE
       /sys/src/cmd/sort.c

SEE ALSO
       uniq(1), look(1)

DIAGNOSTICS
       Sort comments and exits with non-null status for various trouble condi‐
       tions and for disorder discovered under option -c.

BUGS
       An external null character can be confused with an internally generated
       end-of-field  character.	 The result can make a sub-field not sort less
       than a longer field.

       Some of the options, e.g.  -M, are hopelessly provincial.

								       SORT(1)
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