usr.bin/sort/sort.1

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.\"     @(#)sort.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
.\"
.Dd June 6, 1993
.Dt SORT 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm sort
.Nd sort or merge text files
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm sort
.Op Fl cmubdfinrH
.Op Fl t Ar char
.Op Fl R Ar char
.Oo
.Cm Fl k Ar field1[,field2]
.Oc
.Ar ...
.Op Fl T Ar dir
.Op Fl o Ar output
.Op Ar file
.Ar ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility sorts text files by lines.
Comparisons are based on one or more sort keys extracted
from each line of input, and are performed lexicographically.
By default, if keys are not given,
.Nm
regards each input line as a single field.
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width file Ds
.It Fl c
Check that the single input file is sorted.
If the file is not sorted,
.Nm
produces the appropriate error messages and exits with code 1; otherwise,
.Nm
returns 0.
.Nm
.Fl c
produces no output, except the error messages on
.Em stderr .
.It Fl m
Merge only; the input files are assumed to be pre-sorted.
.It Fl o Ar output
The argument given is the name of an
.Ar output
file to be used instead of the standard output.
This file can be the same as one of the input files.
.It Fl T Ar dir
Use
.Ar dir
as the directory for temporary files.
The default is the contents of the environment variable
.Ev TMPDIR
or
.Pa /var/tmp
if
.Ev TMPDIR
does not exist.
.It Fl u
Unique: suppress all but one in each set of lines having equal keys.
If used with the
.Fl c
option, check that there are no lines with duplicate keys.
.El
.Pp
The following options override the default ordering rules.
When ordering options appear independent of key field
specifications, the requested field ordering rules are
applied globally to all sort keys.
When attached to a specific key (see
.Fl k ) ,
the ordering options override
all global ordering options for that key.
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Fl d
Only blank space and alphanumeric characters
.\" according
.\" to the current setting of LC_CTYPE
are used in making comparisons.
.It Fl f
Considers all lowercase characters that have uppercase
equivalents to be the same for purposes of comparison.
.It Fl i
Ignore all non-printable characters.
.It Fl n
An initial numeric string, consisting of optional blank space, optional
minus sign, and zero or more digits (including decimal point)
.\" with
.\" optional radix character and thousands
.\" separator
.\" (as defined in the current locale),
is sorted by arithmetic value.
(The
.Fl n
option no longer implies the
.Fl b
option.)
.It Fl r
Reverse the sense of comparisons.
.It Fl H
Use a merge sort instead of a radix sort.
This option should be used for files larger than 60Mb.
.El
.Pp
The treatment of field separators can be altered using these options:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Fl b
Ignores leading blank space when determining the start
and end of a restricted sort key.
A
.Fl b
option specified before the first
.Fl k
option applies globally to all
.Fl k
options.
Otherwise, the
.Fl b
option can be attached independently to each
.Ar field
argument of the
.Fl k
option (see below).
Note that the
.Fl b
option has no effect unless key fields are specified.
.It Fl t Ar char
.Ar char
is used as the field separator character.
The initial
.Ar char
is not considered to be part of a field when determining key offsets.
Each occurrence of
.Ar char
is significant (for example,
.Dq Ar charchar
delimits an empty field).
If
.Fl t
is not specified, the default field separator is a sequence of
blank-space characters, and consecutive blank spaces do
.Em not
delimit an empty field; further, the initial blank space
.Em is
considered part of a field when determining key offsets.
.It Fl R Ar char
.Ar char
is used as the record separator character.
This should be used with discretion;
.Fl R Ar <alphanumeric>
usually produces undesirable results.
The default record separator is newline.
.It Fl k Ar field1[,field2]
Designates the starting position,
.Ar field1 ,
and optional ending position,
.Ar field2 ,
of a key field.
The
.Fl k
option replaces the obsolescent options
.Cm \(pl Ns Ar pos1
and
.Fl Ns Ar pos2 .
.El
.Pp
The following operands are available:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Ar file
The pathname of a file to be sorted, merged, or checked.
If no
.Ar file
operands are specified, or if a
.Ar file
operand is
.Fl ,
the standard input is used.
.El
.Pp
A field is defined as a maximal sequence of characters other than the
field separator and record separator
.Pq newline by default .
Initial blank spaces are included in the field unless
.Fl b
has been specified;
the first blank space of a sequence of blank spaces acts as the field
separator and is included in the field (unless
.Fl t
is specified).
For example, by default all blank spaces at the beginning of a line are
considered to be part of the first field.
.Pp
Fields are specified by the
.Fl k Ar field1[,field2]
argument.
A missing
.Ar field2
argument defaults to the end of a line.
.Pp
The arguments
.Ar field1
and
.Ar field2
have the form
.Em m.n
.Em (m,n > 0)
and can be followed by one or more of the letters
.Cm b , d , f , i ,
.Cm n ,
and
.Cm r ,
which correspond to the options discussed above.
A
.Ar field1
position specified by
.Em m.n
is interpreted as the
.Em n Ns th
character from the beginning of the
.Em m Ns th
field.
A missing
.Em \&.n
in
.Ar field1
means
.Ql \&.1 ,
indicating the first character of the
.Em m Ns th
field; if the
.Fl b
option is in effect,
.Em n
is counted from the first non-blank character in the
.Em m Ns th
field;
.Em m Ns \&.1b
refers to the first non-blank character in the
.Em m Ns th
field.
.No 1\&. Ns Em n
refers to the
.Em n Ns th
character from the beginning of the line;
if
.Em n
is greater than the length of the line, the field is taken to be empty.
.Pp
A
.Ar field2
position specified by
.Em m.n
is interpreted as the
.Em n Ns th
character (including separators) of the
.Em m Ns th
field.
A missing
.Em \&.n
indicates the last character of the
.Em m Ns th
field;
.Em m
= \&0
designates the end of a line.
Thus the option
.Fl k Ar v.x,w.y
is synonymous with the obsolescent option
.Cm \(pl Ns Ar v-\&1.x-\&1
.Fl Ns Ar w-\&1.y ;
when
.Em y
is omitted,
.Fl k Ar v.x,w
is synonymous with
.Cm \(pl Ns Ar v-\&1.x-\&1
.Fl Ns Ar w+1.0 .
The obsolescent
.Cm \(pl Ns Ar pos1
.Fl Ns Ar pos2
option is still supported, except for
.Fl Ns Ar w\&.0b ,
which has no
.Fl k
equivalent.
.Pp
The
.Nm
utility shall exit with one of the following values:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width flag -compact
.It 0
Normal behavior.
.It 1
On disorder (or non-uniqueness) with the
.Fl c
option.
.It 2
An error occurred.
.El
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
.Bl -tag -width Fl
.It Ev TMPDIR
Path in which to store temporary files.
Note that
.Ev TMPDIR
may be overridden by the
.Fl T
option.
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width Pa -compact
.It Pa /var/tmp/sort.*
default temporary directories
.It Pa Ar output Ns #PID
temporary name for
.Ar output
if
.Ar output
already exists
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr comm 1 ,
.Xr join 1 ,
.Xr radixsort 3 ,
.Xr uniq 1
.Sh HISTORY
A
.Nm
command appeared in
.At v3 .
.Sh NOTES
.Nm
has no limits on input line length (other than imposed by available
memory) or any restrictions on bytes allowed within lines.
.Pp
To protect data
.Nm
.Fl o
calls
.Xr link 2
and
.Xr unlink 2 ,
and thus fails on protected directories.
.Pp
The current sort command uses lexicographic radix sorting, which requires
that sort keys be kept in memory (as opposed to previous versions which
used quick and merge sorts and did not).
Thus performance depends highly on efficient choice of sort keys, and the
.Fl b
option and the
.Ar field2
argument of the
.Fl k
option should be used whenever possible.
Similarly,
.Nm
.Fl k1f
is equivalent to
.Nm
.Fl f
and may take twice as long.
.Sh BUGS
To sort files larger than 60Mb, use
.Nm
.Fl H ;
files larger than 704Mb must be sorted in smaller pieces, then merged.