xref: /openbsd/usr.bin/tsort/tsort.1 (revision 78b63d65)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: tsort.1,v 1.11 2001/09/06 15:04:34 mpech Exp $
2.\"	$NetBSD: tsort.1,v 1.6 1996/01/17 20:37:49 mycroft Exp $
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38.\"     @(#)tsort.1	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/1/94
39.\"
40.Dd November 1, 1999
41.Dt TSORT 1
42.Os
43.Sh NAME
44.Nm tsort
45.Nd topological sort of a directed graph
46.Sh SYNOPSIS
47.Nm tsort
48.Op Fl f
49.Op Fl h Ar file
50.Op Fl l
51.Op Fl q
52.Op Fl r
53.Op Fl v
54.Op Fl w
55.Op Ar file
56.Sh DESCRIPTION
57.Nm tsort
58takes a list of pairs of node names representing directed arcs in
59a graph and prints the nodes in topological order on standard output.
60Input is taken from the named
61.Ar file ,
62or from standard input if no file
63is given.
64.Pp
65Node names in the input are separated by white space and there must
66be an even number of node pairs.
67.Pp
68Presence of a node in a graph can be represented by an arc from the node
69to itself.
70This is useful when a node is not connected to any other nodes.
71.Pp
72If the graph contains a cycle (and therefore cannot be properly sorted),
73one of the arcs in the cycle is ignored and the sort continues.
74Cycles are reported on standard error.
75.Pp
76The options are as follows:
77.Bl -tag -width Ds
78.It Fl f
79Resolve ambiguities by selecting nodes based on the order of apparition
80of the first component of the pairs.
81.It Fl h Ar file
82Use
83.Ar file ,
84which holds an ordered list of nodes, to resolve ambiguities.
85In case of duplicates, the first entry is chosen.
86.It Fl l
87Search for and display the longest cycle.
88Can take a very long time, as it may need to solve an NP-complete problem.
89.It Fl q
90Do not display informational messages about cycles.
91This is primarily intended for building libraries, where optimal ordering
92is not critical, and cycles occur often.
93.It Fl r
94Reverse the ordering relation.
95.It Fl v
96Inform on the exact number of edges broken while breaking cycles.
97If a hints file was used, inform on seen nodes absent from that file.
98.It Fl w
99Exit with exit code the number of cycles
100.Nm
101had to break.
102.El
103.Sh SEE ALSO
104.Xr ar 1 ,
105.Xr lorder 1
106.Rs
107.%A Donald E. Knuth
108.%B The Art of Computer Programming
109.%V Vol. 1
110.%P pp 258-268
111.%D 1973
112.Re
113.Sh HISTORY
114A
115.Nm
116command appeared in
117.At v7 .
118This
119.Nm tsort
120command was completely rewritten by Marc Espie for
121.Ox ,
122to finally use the well-known optimal algorithms for topological sorting.
123