SORT(P) POSIX Programmer's Manual SORT(P)NAMEsort - sort, merge, or sequence check text files
SYNOPSISsort [-m][-o output][-bdfinru][-t char][-k keydef]... [file...]
sort-c [-bdfinru][-t char][-k keydef][file]
DESCRIPTION
The sort utility shall perform one of the following functions:
1. Sort lines of all the named files together and write the result to
the specified output.
2. Merge lines of all the named (presorted) files together and write
the result to the specified output.
3. Check that a single input file is correctly presorted.
Comparisons shall be based on one or more sort keys extracted from each
line of input (or, if no sort keys are specified, the entire line up
to, but not including, the terminating <newline>), and shall be per‐
formed using the collating sequence of the current locale.
OPTIONS
The sort utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of
IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines, and the
-k keydef option should follow the -b, -d, -f, -i, -n, and -r options.
The following options shall be supported:
-c Check that the single input file is ordered as specified by the
arguments and the collating sequence of the current locale. No
output shall be produced; only the exit code shall be affected.
-m Merge only; the input file shall be assumed to be already
sorted.
-o output
Specify the name of an output file to be used instead of the
standard output. This file can be the same as one of the input
files.
-u Unique: suppress all but one in each set of lines having equal
keys. If used with the -c option, check that there are no lines
with duplicate keys, in addition to checking that the input file
is sorted.
The following options shall override the default ordering rules. When
ordering options appear independent of any key field specifications,
the requested field ordering rules shall be applied globally to all
sort keys. When attached to a specific key (see -k), the specified
ordering options shall override all global ordering options for that
key.
-d Specify that only <blank>s and alphanumeric characters, accord‐
ing to the current setting of LC_CTYPE , shall be significant in
comparisons. The behavior is undefined for a sort key to which
-i or -n also applies.
-f Consider all lowercase characters that have uppercase equiva‐
lents, according to the current setting of LC_CTYPE , to be the
uppercase equivalent for the purposes of comparison.
-i Ignore all characters that are non-printable, according to the
current setting of LC_CTYPE .
-n Restrict the sort key to an initial numeric string, consisting
of optional <blank>s, optional minus sign, and zero or more dig‐
its with an optional radix character and thousands separators
(as defined in the current locale), which shall be sorted by
arithmetic value. An empty digit string shall be treated as
zero. Leading zeros and signs on zeros shall not affect order‐
ing.
-r Reverse the sense of comparisons.
The treatment of field separators can be altered using the options:
-b Ignore leading <blank>s when determining the starting and ending
positions of a restricted sort key. If the -b option is speci‐
fied before the first -k option, it shall be applied to all -k
options. Otherwise, the -b option can be attached independently
to each -k field_start or field_end option-argument (see below).
-t char
Use char as the field separator character; char shall not be
considered to be part of a field (although it can be included in
a sort key). Each occurrence of char shall be significant (for
example, <char><char> delimits an empty field). If -t is not
specified, <blank>s shall be used as default field separators;
each maximal non-empty sequence of <blank>s that follows a non-
<blank> shall be a field separator.
Sort keys can be specified using the options:
-k keydef
The keydef argument is a restricted sort key field definition.
The format of this definition is:
field_start[type][,field_end[type]]
where field_start and field_end define a key field restricted to a por‐
tion of the line (see the EXTENDED DESCRIPTION section), and type is a
modifier from the list of characters 'b' , 'd' , 'f' , 'i' , 'n' , 'r'
. The 'b' modifier shall behave like the -b option, but shall apply
only to the field_start or field_end to which it is attached. The
other modifiers shall behave like the corresponding options, but shall
apply only to the key field to which they are attached; they shall have
this effect if specified with field_start, field_end, or both. If any
modifier is attached to a field_start or to a field_end, no option
shall apply to either. Implementations shall support at least nine
occurrences of the -k option, which shall be significant in command
line order. If no -k option is specified, a default sort key of the
entire line shall be used.
When there are multiple key fields, later keys shall be compared only
after all earlier keys compare equal. Except when the -u option is
specified, lines that otherwise compare equal shall be ordered as if
none of the options -d, -f, -i, -n, or -k were present (but with -r
still in effect, if it was specified) and with all bytes in the lines
significant to the comparison. The order in which lines that still com‐
pare equal are written is unspecified.
OPERANDS
The following operand shall be supported:
file A pathname of a file to be sorted, merged, or checked. If no
file operands are specified, or if a file operand is '-' , the
standard input shall be used.
STDIN
The standard input shall be used only if no file operands are speci‐
fied, or if a file operand is '-' . See the INPUT FILES section.
INPUT FILES
The input files shall be text files, except that the sort utility shall
add a <newline> to the end of a file ending with an incomplete last
line.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of sort:
LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables
that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of
IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization Vari‐
ables for the precedence of internationalization variables used
to determine the values of locale categories.)
LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all
the other internationalization variables.
LC_COLLATE
Determine the locale for ordering rules.
LC_CTYPE
Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of
bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as
opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input files)
and the behavior of character classification for the -b, -d, -f,
-i, and -n options.
LC_MESSAGES
Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format
and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.
LC_NUMERIC
Determine the locale for the definition of the radix character
and thousands separator for the -n option.
NLSPATH
Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of
LC_MESSAGES .
ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
Default.
STDOUT
Unless the -o or -c options are in effect, the standard output shall
contain the sorted input.
STDERR
The standard error shall be used for diagnostic messages. A warning
message about correcting an incomplete last line of an input file may
be generated, but need not affect the final exit status.
OUTPUT FILES
If the -o option is in effect, the sorted input shall be written to the
file output.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
The notation:
-k field_start[type][,field_end[type]]
shall define a key field that begins at field_start and ends at
field_end inclusive, unless field_start falls beyond the end of the
line or after field_end, in which case the key field is empty. A miss‐
ing field_end shall mean the last character of the line.
A field comprises a maximal sequence of non-separating characters and,
in the absence of option -t, any preceding field separator.
The field_start portion of the keydef option-argument shall have the
form:
field_number[.first_character]
Fields and characters within fields shall be numbered starting with 1.
The field_number and first_character pieces, interpreted as positive
decimal integers, shall specify the first character to be used as part
of a sort key. If .first_character is omitted, it shall refer to the
first character of the field.
The field_end portion of the keydef option-argument shall have the
form:
field_number[.last_character]
The field_number shall be as described above for field_start. The
last_character piece, interpreted as a non-negative decimal integer,
shall specify the last character to be used as part of the sort key. If
last_character evaluates to zero or .last_character is omitted, it
shall refer to the last character of the field specified by field_num‐
ber.
If the -b option or b type modifier is in effect, characters within a
field shall be counted from the first non- <blank> in the field. (This
shall apply separately to first_character and last_character.)
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values shall be returned:
0 All input files were output successfully, or -c was specified
and the input file was correctly sorted.
1 Under the -c option, the file was not ordered as specified, or
if the -c and -u options were both specified, two input lines
were found with equal keys.
>1 An error occurred.
CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
Default.
The following sections are informative.
APPLICATION USAGE
The default value for -t, <blank>, has different properties from, for
example, -t "<space>". If a line contains:
<space><space>foo
the following treatment would occur with default separation as opposed
to specifically selecting a <space>:
Field Default -t "<space>"
1 <space><space>foo empty
2 empty empty
3 empty foo
The leading field separator itself is included in a field when -t is
not used. For example, this command returns an exit status of zero,
meaning the input was already sorted:
sort-c -k 2 <<eof
y<tab>b
x<space>a
eof
(assuming that a <tab> precedes the <space> in the current collating
sequence). The field separator is not included in a field when it is
explicitly set via -t. This is historical practice and allows usage
such as:
sort-t "|" -k 2n <<eof
Atlanta|425022|Georgia
Birmingham|284413|Alabama
Columbia|100385|South Carolina
eof
where the second field can be correctly sorted numerically without
regard to the non-numeric field separator.
The wording in the OPTIONS section clarifies that the -b, -d, -f, -i,
-n, and -r options have to come before the first sort key specified if
they are intended to apply to all specified keys. The way it is
described in this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 matches historical
practice, not historical documentation. The results are unspecified if
these options are specified after a -k option.
The -f option might not work as expected in locales where there is not
a one-to-one mapping between an uppercase and a lowercase letter.
EXAMPLES
1. The following command sorts the contents of infile with the second
field as the sort key:
sort-k 2,2 infile
2. The following command sorts, in reverse order, the contents of
infile1 and infile2, placing the output in outfile and using the
second character of the second field as the sort key (assuming that
the first character of the second field is the field separator):
sort-r -o outfile -k 2.2,2.2 infile1 infile2
3. The following command sorts the contents of infile1 and infile2
using the second non- <blank> of the second field as the sort key:
sort-k 2.2b,2.2b infile1 infile2
4. The following command prints the System V password file (user data‐
base) sorted by the numeric user ID (the third colon-separated
field):
sort-t : -k 3,3n /etc/passwd
5. The following command prints the lines of the already sorted file
infile, suppressing all but one occurrence of lines having the same
third field:
sort-um -k 3.1,3.0 infile
RATIONALE
Examples in some historical documentation state that options -um with
one input file keep the first in each set of lines with equal keys.
This behavior was deemed to be an implementation artifact and was not
standardized.
The -z option was omitted; it is not standard practice on most systems
and is inconsistent with using sort to sort several files individually
and then merge them together. The text concerning -z in historical doc‐
umentation appeared to require implementations to determine the proper
buffer length during the sort phase of operation, but not during the
merge.
The -y option was omitted because of non-portability. The -M option,
present in System V, was omitted because of non-portability in interna‐
tional usage.
An undocumented -T option exists in some implementations. It is used to
specify a directory for intermediate files. Implementations are
encouraged to support the use of the TMPDIR environment variable
instead of adding an option to support this functionality.
The -k option was added to satisfy two objections. First, the zero-
based counting used by sort is not consistent with other utility con‐
ventions. Second, it did not meet syntax guideline requirements.
Historical documentation indicates that "setting -n implies -b". The
description of -n already states that optional leading <blank>s are
tolerated in doing the comparison. If -b is enabled, rather than
implied, by -n, this has unusual side effects. When a character offset
is used in a column of numbers (for example, to sort modulo 100), that
offset is measured relative to the most significant digit, not to the
column. Based upon a recommendation from the author of the original
sort utility, the -b implication has been omitted from this volume of
IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, and an application wishing to achieve the previ‐
ously mentioned side effects has to code the -b flag explicitly.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
comm , join , uniq , the System Interfaces volume of
IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, toupper()COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the
event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2003 SORT(P)
