NAME

sort - sort and/or merge text files


SYNOPSIS

sort [-bdfimr] [+sn] [file] ...


DESCRIPTION

Sort sorts lines of all the named files together and writes the result
on the standard output.
If no files are given or the filename '-' appears, standard input
is read.

The sort key is an entire line.
Default ordering is alphabetic by characters as they are represented
in ASCII format.
The ordering is affected by the
following flags, one or more of which may appear.



-b Leading blanks  are not included in keys.


-d 'Dictionary' order: only letters, digits and blanks are significant
in comparisons.


-f Fold all letters to a single case.


-i Ignore all nonprinting nonblank characters.


-m Merge only, the input files are already sorted.


-r Reverse the sense of the sort


+sn Sort according to the subfield starting on column n




FILES

A series of scratch files are generated and subsequently deleted.
Presently the files are named "Sn" where "n" is a sequence number.


SEE ALSO

tsort

The Unix command "sort" in the Unix User's Manual.



DIAGNOSTICS

file:  can't open


This message is printed if either an input file or a scratch
file cannot be opened; execution ceases.


too many arguments

Printed if too many files are specified on the command line.
The limit is determined by the FLMAX definition in the source code.



AUTHORS

Original design from Kernighan and Plauger's "Software Tools",
with modifications by
Joe Sventek (Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory).


BUGS

The merge phase is performed with a polyphase merge/sort algorithm,
which requires an end-of-run delimiter on the scratch files.
The one chosen is
a bare ^D (ASCII code 4) on a line.  If this is in conflict with your
data files, the symbol CTRLD in the sort symbol definitions
should be redefined.