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Annotation of src/usr.bin/sort/sort.1, Revision 1.47

1.47    ! jmc         1: .\"    $OpenBSD: sort.1,v 1.46 2015/03/21 21:15:12 jmc Exp $
1.1       millert     2: .\"
                      3: .\" Copyright (c) 1991, 1993
                      4: .\"    The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
                      5: .\"
                      6: .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
                      7: .\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
                      8: .\"
                      9: .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
                     10: .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
                     11: .\" are met:
                     12: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
                     13: .\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
                     14: .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
                     15: .\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
                     16: .\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
1.20      millert    17: .\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
1.1       millert    18: .\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
                     19: .\"    without specific prior written permission.
                     20: .\"
                     21: .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
                     22: .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
                     23: .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
                     24: .\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
                     25: .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
                     26: .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
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                     30: .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
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                     32: .\"
                     33: .\"     @(#)sort.1     8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
                     34: .\"
1.47    ! jmc        35: .Dd $Mdocdate: March 21 2015 $
1.1       millert    36: .Dt SORT 1
                     37: .Os
                     38: .Sh NAME
                     39: .Nm sort
1.41      millert    40: .Nd sort, merge, or sequence check text and binary files
1.1       millert    41: .Sh SYNOPSIS
                     42: .Nm sort
1.43      jmc        43: .Op Fl bCcdfgHhiMmnRrsuVz
1.42      jmc        44: .Op Fl k Ar field1 Ns Op , Ns Ar field2
1.23      jmc        45: .Op Fl o Ar output
1.42      jmc        46: .Op Fl S Ar size
1.1       millert    47: .Op Fl T Ar dir
1.23      jmc        48: .Op Fl t Ar char
1.34      sobrado    49: .Op Ar
1.1       millert    50: .Sh DESCRIPTION
                     51: The
1.8       aaron      52: .Nm
1.41      millert    53: utility sorts text and binary files by lines.
                     54: A line is a record separated from the subsequent record by a
                     55: newline (default) or NUL \'\\0\' character (-z option).
                     56: A record can contain any printable or unprintable characters.
                     57: Comparisons are based on one or more sort keys extracted from
                     58: each line of input, and are performed lexicographically,
                     59: according to the current locale's collating rules and the
                     60: specified command-line options that can tune the actual
                     61: sorting behavior.
1.8       aaron      62: By default, if keys are not given,
                     63: .Nm
1.41      millert    64: uses entire lines for comparison.
1.1       millert    65: .Pp
1.7       aaron      66: The options are as follows:
1.21      jmc        67: .Bl -tag -width Ds
1.41      millert    68: .It Fl C, Fl Fl check=silent|quiet
1.35      schwarze   69: Check that the single input file is sorted.
                     70: If it is, exit 0; if it's not, exit 1.
                     71: In either case, produce no output.
1.41      millert    72: .It Fl c, Fl Fl check
1.35      schwarze   73: Like
                     74: .Fl C ,
1.37      jmc        75: but additionally write a message to
1.35      schwarze   76: .Em stderr
                     77: if the input file is not sorted.
1.41      millert    78: .It Fl m , Fl Fl merge
1.1       millert    79: Merge only; the input files are assumed to be pre-sorted.
1.41      millert    80: If they are not sorted, the output order is undefined.
                     81: .It Fl o Ar output , Fl Fl output Ns = Ns Ar output
                     82: Write the output to the
1.1       millert    83: .Ar output
1.41      millert    84: file instead of the standard output.
1.12      aaron      85: This file can be the same as one of the input files.
1.42      jmc        86: .It Fl S Ar size , Fl Fl buffer-size Ns = Ns Ar size
1.41      millert    87: Use a memory buffer no larger than
                     88: .Ar size .
                     89: The modifiers %, b, K, M, G, T, P, E, Z, and Y can be used.
                     90: If no memory limit is specified,
                     91: .Nm
                     92: may use up to about 90% of available memory.
                     93: If the input is too big to fit into the memory buffer,
                     94: temporary files are used.
1.42      jmc        95: .It Fl s
                     96: Stable sort; maintains the original record order of records that have
                     97: and equal key.
                     98: This is a non-standard feature, but it is widely accepted and used.
1.41      millert    99: .It Fl T Ar dir , Fl Fl temporary-directory Ns = Ns Ar dir
                    100: Store temporary files in the directory
                    101: .Ar dir .
                    102: The default path is the value of the environment variable
1.1       millert   103: .Ev TMPDIR
                    104: or
                    105: .Pa /var/tmp
                    106: if
                    107: .Ev TMPDIR
1.41      millert   108: is not defined.
                    109: .It Fl u , Fl Fl unique
1.12      aaron     110: Unique: suppress all but one in each set of lines having equal keys.
1.41      millert   111: This option implies a stable sort (see below).
                    112: If used with
1.35      schwarze  113: .Fl C
                    114: or
1.41      millert   115: .Fl c ,
                    116: .Nm
                    117: also checks that there are no lines with duplicate keys.
                    118: .It Fl Fl version
                    119: Print the version and exit.
                    120: .It Fl Fl help
                    121: Print the help text and exit.
1.38      jmc       122: .El
                    123: .Pp
1.1       millert   124: The following options override the default ordering rules.
1.37      jmc       125: If ordering options appear before the first
                    126: .Fl k
                    127: option, they apply globally to all sort keys.
1.1       millert   128: When attached to a specific key (see
                    129: .Fl k ) ,
1.41      millert   130: the ordering options override all global ordering options for that key.
1.37      jmc       131: Note that the ordering options intended to apply globally should not
                    132: appear after
                    133: .Fl k
                    134: or results may be unexpected.
1.1       millert   135: .Bl -tag -width indent
1.41      millert   136: .It Fl b, Fl Fl ignore-leading-blanks
                    137: Ignore leading blank characters when comparing lines.
                    138: .It Fl d , Fl Fl dictionary-order
                    139: Consider only blank spaces and alphanumeric characters in comparisons.
                    140: .It Fl f , Fl Fl ignore-case
                    141: Consider all lowercase characters that have uppercase
1.12      aaron     142: equivalents to be the same for purposes of comparison.
1.41      millert   143: .It Fl g, Fl Fl general-numeric-sort, Fl Fl sort=general-numeric
                    144: Sort by general numerical value.
                    145: As opposed to
                    146: .Fl n ,
                    147: this option handles general floating points, which have a much
                    148: permissive format than those allowed by
                    149: . Fl n ,
                    150: but it has a significant performance drawback.
                    151: .It Fl h, Fl Fl human-numeric-sort, Fl Fl sort=human-numeric
                    152: Sort by numerical value, but take into account the SI suffix,
                    153: if present.
                    154: Sorts first by numeric sign (negative, zero, or
                    155: positive); then by SI suffix (either empty, or `k' or `K', or one
                    156: of `MGTPEZY', in that order); and finally by numeric value.
                    157: The SI suffix must immediately follow the number.
                    158: For example, '12345K' sorts before '1M', because M is "larger" than K.
                    159: This sort option is useful for sorting the output of a single invocation
                    160: of 'df' command with
                    161: .Fl h
                    162: or
                    163: .Fl H
                    164: options (human-readable).
                    165: .It Fl i , Fl Fl ignore-nonprinting
1.1       millert   166: Ignore all non-printable characters.
1.41      millert   167: .It Fl M, Fl Fl month-sort, Fl Fl sort=month
                    168: Sort by month abbreviations.
                    169: Unknown strings are considered smaller than valid month names.
                    170: .It Fl n , Fl Fl numeric-sort, Fl Fl sort=numeric
1.12      aaron     171: An initial numeric string, consisting of optional blank space, optional
                    172: minus sign, and zero or more digits (including decimal point)
1.1       millert   173: .\" with
                    174: .\" optional radix character and thousands
                    175: .\" separator
                    176: .\" (as defined in the current locale),
                    177: is sorted by arithmetic value.
1.41      millert   178: Leading blank characters are ignored.
                    179: .It Fl R, Fl Fl random-sort, Fl Fl sort=random
                    180: Sort lines in random order.
                    181: This is a random permutation of the inputs with the exception that
                    182: equal keys sort together.
                    183: It is implemented by hashing the input keys and sorting the hash values.
                    184: The hash function is randomized with data from
1.47    ! jmc       185: .Xr arc4random_buf 3 ,
1.41      millert   186: or by file content if one is specified via
                    187: .Fl Fl random-source .
                    188: If multiple sort fields are specified,
                    189: the same random hash function is used for all of them.
                    190: .It Fl r , Fl Fl reverse
                    191: Sort in reverse order.
                    192: .It Fl V, Fl Fl version-sort
                    193: Sort version numbers.
                    194: The input lines are treated as file names in form
                    195: PREFIX VERSION SUFFIX, where SUFFIX matches the regular expression
                    196: "(\.([A-Za-z~][A-Za-z0-9~]*)?)*".
                    197: The files are compared by their prefixes and versions (leading
                    198: zeros are ignored in version numbers, see example below).
                    199: If an input string does not match the pattern, then it is compared
                    200: using the byte compare function.
                    201: All string comparisons are performed in the C locale.
1.44      jmc       202: .Pp
                    203: For example:
                    204: .Bd -literal -offset indent
                    205: $ ls sort* | sort -V
                    206: sort-1.022.tgz
                    207: sort-1.23.tgz
                    208: sort-1.23.1.tgz
                    209: sort-1.024.tgz
                    210: sort-1.024.003.
                    211: sort-1.024.003.tgz
                    212: sort-1.024.07.tgz
                    213: sort-1.024.009.tgz
                    214: .Ed
1.1       millert   215: .El
                    216: .Pp
1.12      aaron     217: The treatment of field separators can be altered using these options:
1.1       millert   218: .Bl -tag -width indent
1.41      millert   219: .It Fl b , Fl Fl ignore-leading-blanks
                    220: Ignore leading blank space when determining the start
                    221: and end of a restricted sort key (see
                    222: .Fl k ) .
                    223: If
1.1       millert   224: .Fl b
1.41      millert   225: is specified before the first
1.1       millert   226: .Fl k
1.41      millert   227: option, it applies globally to all key specifications.
                    228: Otherwise,
1.1       millert   229: .Fl b
1.41      millert   230: can be attached independently to each
1.1       millert   231: .Ar field
1.41      millert   232: argument of the key specifications.
                    233: .It Xo
1.42      jmc       234: .Fl k Ar field1 Ns Op , Ns Ar field2 ,
                    235: .Fl Fl key Ns = Ns Ar field1 Ns Op , Ns Ar field2
1.41      millert   236: .Xc
                    237: Define a restricted sort key that has the starting position
                    238: .Ar field1 ,
                    239: and optional ending position
                    240: .Ar field2
                    241: of a key field.
                    242: The
                    243: .Fl k
                    244: option may be specified multiple times,
                    245: in which case subsequent keys are compared after earlier keys compare equal.
                    246: The
1.1       millert   247: .Fl k
1.41      millert   248: option replaces the obsolete options
                    249: .Cm \(pl Ns Ar pos1
                    250: and
                    251: .Fl Ns Ar pos2 ,
                    252: but the old notation is also supported.
                    253: .It Fl t Ar char , Fl Fl field-separator Ns = Ns Ar char
                    254: Use
1.3       aaron     255: .Ar char
1.41      millert   256: as the field separator character.
1.8       aaron     257: The initial
1.1       millert   258: .Ar char
1.12      aaron     259: is not considered to be part of a field when determining key offsets.
1.1       millert   260: Each occurrence of
                    261: .Ar char
                    262: is significant (for example,
                    263: .Dq Ar charchar
                    264: delimits an empty field).
                    265: If
                    266: .Fl t
1.6       pjanzen   267: is not specified, the default field separator is a sequence of
                    268: blank-space characters, and consecutive blank spaces do
                    269: .Em not
                    270: delimit an empty field; further, the initial blank space
                    271: .Em is
                    272: considered part of a field when determining key offsets.
1.41      millert   273: To use NUL as field separator, use
                    274: .Fl t
                    275: \'\\0\'.
                    276: .It Fl z , Fl Fl zero-terminated
                    277: Use NUL as the record separator.
                    278: By default, records in the files are expected to be separated by
                    279: the newline characters.
                    280: With this option, NUL (\'\\0\') is used as the record separator character.
1.37      jmc       281: .El
                    282: .Pp
1.41      millert   283: Other options:
1.37      jmc       284: .Bl -tag -width indent
1.41      millert   285: .It Fl Fl batch-size Ns = Ns Ar num
                    286: Specify maximum number of files that can be opened by
                    287: .Nm
                    288: at once.
                    289: This option affects behavior when having many input files or using
                    290: temporary files.
                    291: The default value is 16.
                    292: .It Fl Fl compress-program Ns = Ns Ar program
                    293: Use
                    294: .Ar program
                    295: to compress temporary files.
                    296: When invoked with no arguments,
                    297: .Ar program
                    298: must compress standard input to standard output.
                    299: When called with the
                    300: .Fl d
                    301: option, it must decompress standard input to standard output.
                    302: If
                    303: .Ar program
                    304: fails,
                    305: .Nm
                    306: will exit with an error.
1.37      jmc       307: The
1.41      millert   308: .Xr compress 1
                    309: and
                    310: .Xr gzip 1
                    311: utilities meet these requirements.
                    312: .It Fl Fl random-source Ns = Ns Ar filename
                    313: For random sort, the contents of
                    314: .Ar filename
                    315: are used as the source of the
                    316: .Sq seed
                    317: data for the hash function.
                    318: Two invocations of random sort with the same seed data will use
                    319: produce the same result if the input is also identical.
                    320: By default, the
                    321: .Fn arc4random_buf
                    322: function is used instead.
                    323: .It Fl Fl debug
                    324: Print some extra information about the sorting process to the
                    325: standard output.
                    326: .It Fl Fl files0-from Ns = Ns Ar filename
                    327: Take the input file list from the file
1.44      jmc       328: .Ar filename .
1.41      millert   329: The file names must be separated by NUL
                    330: (like the output produced by the command
                    331: .Dq find ... -print0 ) .
                    332: .It Fl Fl radixsort
                    333: Try to use radix sort, if the sort specifications allow.
                    334: The radix sort can only be used for trivial locales (C and POSIX),
                    335: and it cannot be used for numeric or month sort.
                    336: Radix sort is very fast and stable.
                    337: .It Fl H, Fl Fl mergesort
                    338: Use mergesort.
                    339: This is a universal algorithm that can always be used,
                    340: but it is not always the fastest.
                    341: .It Fl Fl qsort
                    342: Try to use quick sort, if the sort specifications allow.
                    343: This sort algorithm cannot be used with
                    344: .Fl u
                    345: and
                    346: .Fl s .
                    347: .It Fl Fl heapsort
                    348: Try to use heap sort, if the sort specifications allow.
                    349: This sort algorithm cannot be used with
                    350: .Fl u
1.37      jmc       351: and
1.41      millert   352: .Fl s .
                    353: .It Fl Fl mmap
                    354: Try to use file memory mapping system call.
                    355: It may increase speed in some cases.
1.1       millert   356: .El
                    357: .Pp
                    358: The following operands are available:
                    359: .Bl -tag -width indent
1.3       aaron     360: .It Ar file
                    361: The pathname of a file to be sorted, merged, or checked.
                    362: If no
1.1       millert   363: .Ar file
1.12      aaron     364: operands are specified, or if a
1.3       aaron     365: .Ar file
                    366: operand is
1.1       millert   367: .Fl ,
                    368: the standard input is used.
1.3       aaron     369: .El
1.1       millert   370: .Pp
1.12      aaron     371: A field is defined as a maximal sequence of characters other than the
1.6       pjanzen   372: field separator and record separator
                    373: .Pq newline by default .
                    374: Initial blank spaces are included in the field unless
                    375: .Fl b
                    376: has been specified;
                    377: the first blank space of a sequence of blank spaces acts as the field
                    378: separator and is included in the field (unless
                    379: .Fl t
                    380: is specified).
                    381: For example, by default all blank spaces at the beginning of a line are
                    382: considered to be part of the first field.
1.1       millert   383: .Pp
1.12      aaron     384: Fields are specified by the
1.45      jmc       385: .Fl k Ar field1 Ns Op , Ns Ar field2
1.41      millert   386: option.
                    387: If
1.1       millert   388: .Ar field2
1.41      millert   389: is missing, the end of the key defaults to the end of the line.
1.1       millert   390: .Pp
                    391: The arguments
                    392: .Ar field1
                    393: and
                    394: .Ar field2
                    395: have the form
                    396: .Em m.n
1.6       pjanzen   397: .Em (m,n > 0)
1.41      millert   398: and can be followed by one or more of the modifiers
1.6       pjanzen   399: .Cm b , d , f , i ,
1.41      millert   400: .Cm n , g , M
1.6       pjanzen   401: and
                    402: .Cm r ,
                    403: which correspond to the options discussed above.
1.41      millert   404: When
                    405: .Cm b
                    406: is specified it applies only to
                    407: .Ar field1
                    408: or
                    409: .Ar field2
                    410: where it is specified while the rest of the modifiers
                    411: apply to the whole key field regardless if they are
                    412: specified only with
                    413: .Ar field1
                    414: or
                    415: .Ar field2
                    416: or both.
1.1       millert   417: A
                    418: .Ar field1
                    419: position specified by
                    420: .Em m.n
                    421: is interpreted as the
                    422: .Em n Ns th
1.6       pjanzen   423: character from the beginning of the
1.1       millert   424: .Em m Ns th
                    425: field.
                    426: A missing
                    427: .Em \&.n
                    428: in
                    429: .Ar field1
                    430: means
                    431: .Ql \&.1 ,
                    432: indicating the first character of the
                    433: .Em m Ns th
1.12      aaron     434: field; if the
1.1       millert   435: .Fl b
                    436: option is in effect,
                    437: .Em n
1.12      aaron     438: is counted from the first non-blank character in the
1.1       millert   439: .Em m Ns th
                    440: field;
                    441: .Em m Ns \&.1b
1.12      aaron     442: refers to the first non-blank character in the
1.1       millert   443: .Em m Ns th
                    444: field.
1.6       pjanzen   445: .No 1\&. Ns Em n
                    446: refers to the
                    447: .Em n Ns th
                    448: character from the beginning of the line;
                    449: if
                    450: .Em n
                    451: is greater than the length of the line, the field is taken to be empty.
1.1       millert   452: .Pp
1.41      millert   453: .Em n Ns th
                    454: positions are always counted from the field beginning, even if the field
                    455: is shorter than the number of specified positions.
                    456: Thus, the key can really start from a position in a subsequent field.
                    457: .Pp
1.1       millert   458: A
                    459: .Ar field2
                    460: position specified by
                    461: .Em m.n
1.12      aaron     462: is interpreted as the
1.1       millert   463: .Em n Ns th
1.41      millert   464: character (including separators) from the beginning of the
1.1       millert   465: .Em m Ns th
                    466: field.
                    467: A missing
                    468: .Em \&.n
1.5       aaron     469: indicates the last character of the
1.1       millert   470: .Em m Ns th
                    471: field;
1.5       aaron     472: .Em m
1.1       millert   473: = \&0
                    474: designates the end of a line.
                    475: Thus the option
                    476: .Fl k Ar v.x,w.y
1.41      millert   477: is synonymous with the obsolete option
1.1       millert   478: .Cm \(pl Ns Ar v-\&1.x-\&1
                    479: .Fl Ns Ar w-\&1.y ;
                    480: when
                    481: .Em y
                    482: is omitted,
                    483: .Fl k Ar v.x,w
                    484: is synonymous with
1.5       aaron     485: .Cm \(pl Ns Ar v-\&1.x-\&1
1.19      tdeval    486: .Fl Ns Ar w\&.0 .
1.41      millert   487: The obsolete
1.1       millert   488: .Cm \(pl Ns Ar pos1
                    489: .Fl Ns Ar pos2
                    490: option is still supported, except for
1.3       aaron     491: .Fl Ns Ar w\&.0b ,
1.1       millert   492: which has no
                    493: .Fl k
                    494: equivalent.
                    495: .Sh ENVIRONMENT
                    496: .Bl -tag -width Fl
1.46      jmc       497: .It Ev GNUSORT_NUMERIC_COMPATIBILITY
                    498: If defined
                    499: .Fl t
                    500: will not override the locale numeric symbols, that is, thousand
                    501: separators and decimal separators.
                    502: By default, if we specify
                    503: .Fl t
                    504: with the same symbol as the thousand separator or decimal point,
                    505: the symbol will be treated as the field separator.
                    506: Older behavior was less definite; the symbol was treated as both field
                    507: separator and numeric separator, simultaneously.
                    508: This environment variable enables the old behavior.
                    509: .It Ev LANG
                    510: Used as a last resort to determine different kinds of locale-specific
                    511: behavior if neither the respective environment variable, nor
                    512: .Ev LC_ALL
                    513: are set.
                    514: .It Ev LC_ALL
                    515: Locale settings that override all of the above locale settings.
                    516: This environment variable can be used to set all these settings
                    517: to the same value at once.
1.41      millert   518: .It Ev LC_COLLATE
                    519: Locale settings to be used to determine the collation for
                    520: sorting records.
                    521: .It Ev LC_CTYPE
                    522: Locale settings to be used to case conversion and classification
                    523: of characters, that is, which characters are considered
                    524: whitespaces, etc.
                    525: .It Ev LC_MESSAGES
                    526: Locale settings that determine the language of output messages
                    527: that
                    528: .Nm
                    529: prints out.
                    530: .It Ev LC_NUMERIC
                    531: Locale settings that determine the number format used in numeric sort.
                    532: .It Ev LC_TIME
                    533: Locale settings that determine the month format used in month sort.
1.1       millert   534: .It Ev TMPDIR
1.41      millert   535: Path to the directory in which temporary files will be stored.
1.3       aaron     536: Note that
1.1       millert   537: .Ev TMPDIR
                    538: may be overridden by the
                    539: .Fl T
                    540: option.
1.11      aaron     541: .El
1.1       millert   542: .Sh FILES
                    543: .Bl -tag -width Pa -compact
1.41      millert   544: .It Pa /var/tmp/.bsdsort.PID.*
                    545: Temporary files.
1.39      jmc       546: .El
                    547: .Sh EXIT STATUS
                    548: The
                    549: .Nm
                    550: utility exits with one of the following values:
                    551: .Pp
                    552: .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
                    553: .It 0
1.41      millert   554: Successfully sorted the input files or if used with
                    555: .Fl C
                    556: or
                    557: .Fl c ,
                    558: the input file already met the sorting criteria.
1.39      jmc       559: .It 1
1.41      millert   560: On disorder (or non-uniqueness) with the
1.39      jmc       561: .Fl C
                    562: or
                    563: .Fl c
1.41      millert   564: options.
1.39      jmc       565: .It 2
                    566: An error occurred.
1.1       millert   567: .El
                    568: .Sh SEE ALSO
                    569: .Xr comm 1 ,
1.3       aaron     570: .Xr join 1 ,
1.47    ! jmc       571: .Xr uniq 1
1.27      dlg       572: .Sh STANDARDS
                    573: The
                    574: .Nm
1.28      jmc       575: utility is compliant with the
1.33      jmc       576: .St -p1003.1-2008
1.27      dlg       577: specification.
                    578: .Pp
                    579: The flags
1.43      jmc       580: .Op Fl gHhiMRSsTVz
1.28      jmc       581: are extensions to that specification.
1.41      millert   582: .Pp
                    583: All long options are extensions to the specification.
                    584: Some are provided for compatibility with GNU
                    585: .Nm ,
                    586: others are specific to this implementation.
                    587: .Pp
                    588: The historic key notations
                    589: .Cm \(pl Ns Ar pos1
                    590: and
                    591: .Fl Ns Ar pos2
                    592: are supported for compatibility with older versions of
                    593: .Nm
                    594: but their use is highly discouraged.
1.1       millert   595: .Sh HISTORY
                    596: A
1.8       aaron     597: .Nm
1.1       millert   598: command appeared in
1.16      mickey    599: .At v3 .
1.41      millert   600: .Sh AUTHORS
1.44      jmc       601: .An Gabor Kovesdan Aq Mt gabor@FreeBSD.org
                    602: .An Oleg Moskalenko Aq Mt mom040267@gmail.com
1.45      jmc       603: .Sh CAVEATS
1.41      millert   604: This implementation of
1.14      ericj     605: .Nm
                    606: has no limits on input line length (other than imposed by available
                    607: memory) or any restrictions on bytes allowed within lines.
                    608: .Pp
1.41      millert   609: The performance depends highly on locale settings,
                    610: efficient choice of sort keys and key complexity.
                    611: The fastest sort is with the C locale, on whole lines, with option
                    612: .Fl s .
                    613: In general, the C locale is the fastest, followed by single-byte
                    614: locales with multi-byte locales being the slowest.
                    615: The correct collation order respected in all cases.
                    616: For the key specification, the simpler to process the
                    617: lines the faster the search will be.
1.14      ericj     618: .Pp
1.41      millert   619: When sorting by arithmetic value, using
                    620: .Fl n
                    621: results in much better performance than
                    622: .Fl g
                    623: so its use is encouraged whenever possible.