Annotation of src/usr.bin/sort/sort.1, Revision 1.52
1.52 ! millert 1: .\" $OpenBSD: sort.1,v 1.51 2015/04/01 19:56:01 millert Exp $
1.1 millert 2: .\"
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33: .\" @(#)sort.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
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1.52 ! millert 35: .Dd $Mdocdate: April 1 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
1.49 jmc 66: If no
67: .Ar file
68: is specified, or if
69: .Ar file
70: is
71: .Sq - ,
72: the standard input is used.
73: .Pp
1.7 aaron 74: The options are as follows:
1.21 jmc 75: .Bl -tag -width Ds
1.41 millert 76: .It Fl C, Fl Fl check=silent|quiet
1.35 schwarze 77: Check that the single input file is sorted.
78: If it is, exit 0; if it's not, exit 1.
79: In either case, produce no output.
1.41 millert 80: .It Fl c, Fl Fl check
1.35 schwarze 81: Like
82: .Fl C ,
1.37 jmc 83: but additionally write a message to
1.35 schwarze 84: .Em stderr
85: if the input file is not sorted.
1.41 millert 86: .It Fl m , Fl Fl merge
1.1 millert 87: Merge only; the input files are assumed to be pre-sorted.
1.41 millert 88: If they are not sorted, the output order is undefined.
89: .It Fl o Ar output , Fl Fl output Ns = Ns Ar output
90: Write the output to the
1.1 millert 91: .Ar output
1.41 millert 92: file instead of the standard output.
1.12 aaron 93: This file can be the same as one of the input files.
1.42 jmc 94: .It Fl S Ar size , Fl Fl buffer-size Ns = Ns Ar size
1.41 millert 95: Use a memory buffer no larger than
96: .Ar size .
97: The modifiers %, b, K, M, G, T, P, E, Z, and Y can be used.
98: If no memory limit is specified,
99: .Nm
100: may use up to about 90% of available memory.
101: If the input is too big to fit into the memory buffer,
102: temporary files are used.
1.42 jmc 103: .It Fl s
104: Stable sort; maintains the original record order of records that have
1.50 jmc 105: an equal key.
1.42 jmc 106: This is a non-standard feature, but it is widely accepted and used.
1.41 millert 107: .It Fl T Ar dir , Fl Fl temporary-directory Ns = Ns Ar dir
108: Store temporary files in the directory
109: .Ar dir .
110: The default path is the value of the environment variable
1.1 millert 111: .Ev TMPDIR
112: or
113: .Pa /var/tmp
114: if
115: .Ev TMPDIR
1.41 millert 116: is not defined.
117: .It Fl u , Fl Fl unique
1.12 aaron 118: Unique: suppress all but one in each set of lines having equal keys.
1.41 millert 119: This option implies a stable sort (see below).
120: If used with
1.35 schwarze 121: .Fl C
122: or
1.41 millert 123: .Fl c ,
124: .Nm
125: also checks that there are no lines with duplicate keys.
1.38 jmc 126: .El
127: .Pp
1.1 millert 128: The following options override the default ordering rules.
1.37 jmc 129: If ordering options appear before the first
130: .Fl k
131: option, they apply globally to all sort keys.
1.1 millert 132: When attached to a specific key (see
133: .Fl k ) ,
1.41 millert 134: the ordering options override all global ordering options for that key.
1.37 jmc 135: Note that the ordering options intended to apply globally should not
136: appear after
137: .Fl k
138: or results may be unexpected.
1.1 millert 139: .Bl -tag -width indent
1.41 millert 140: .It Fl b, Fl Fl ignore-leading-blanks
141: Ignore leading blank characters when comparing lines.
142: .It Fl d , Fl Fl dictionary-order
143: Consider only blank spaces and alphanumeric characters in comparisons.
144: .It Fl f , Fl Fl ignore-case
145: Consider all lowercase characters that have uppercase
1.12 aaron 146: equivalents to be the same for purposes of comparison.
1.41 millert 147: .It Fl g, Fl Fl general-numeric-sort, Fl Fl sort=general-numeric
148: Sort by general numerical value.
149: As opposed to
150: .Fl n ,
1.50 jmc 151: this option handles general floating points.
152: It has a more
153: permissive format than that allowed by
154: .Fl n
1.41 millert 155: but it has a significant performance drawback.
156: .It Fl h, Fl Fl human-numeric-sort, Fl Fl sort=human-numeric
157: Sort by numerical value, but take into account the SI suffix,
158: if present.
159: Sorts first by numeric sign (negative, zero, or
160: positive); then by SI suffix (either empty, or `k' or `K', or one
161: of `MGTPEZY', in that order); and finally by numeric value.
162: The SI suffix must immediately follow the number.
163: For example, '12345K' sorts before '1M', because M is "larger" than K.
164: This sort option is useful for sorting the output of a single invocation
165: of 'df' command with
166: .Fl h
167: or
168: .Fl H
169: options (human-readable).
170: .It Fl i , Fl Fl ignore-nonprinting
1.1 millert 171: Ignore all non-printable characters.
1.41 millert 172: .It Fl M, Fl Fl month-sort, Fl Fl sort=month
173: Sort by month abbreviations.
174: Unknown strings are considered smaller than valid month names.
175: .It Fl n , Fl Fl numeric-sort, Fl Fl sort=numeric
1.12 aaron 176: An initial numeric string, consisting of optional blank space, optional
177: minus sign, and zero or more digits (including decimal point)
1.1 millert 178: .\" with
179: .\" optional radix character and thousands
180: .\" separator
181: .\" (as defined in the current locale),
182: is sorted by arithmetic value.
1.41 millert 183: Leading blank characters are ignored.
184: .It Fl R, Fl Fl random-sort, Fl Fl sort=random
185: Sort lines in random order.
186: This is a random permutation of the inputs with the exception that
187: equal keys sort together.
188: It is implemented by hashing the input keys and sorting the hash values.
189: The hash function is randomized with data from
1.47 jmc 190: .Xr arc4random_buf 3 ,
1.41 millert 191: or by file content if one is specified via
192: .Fl Fl random-source .
193: If multiple sort fields are specified,
194: the same random hash function is used for all of them.
195: .It Fl r , Fl Fl reverse
196: Sort in reverse order.
197: .It Fl V, Fl Fl version-sort
198: Sort version numbers.
199: The input lines are treated as file names in form
200: PREFIX VERSION SUFFIX, where SUFFIX matches the regular expression
201: "(\.([A-Za-z~][A-Za-z0-9~]*)?)*".
202: The files are compared by their prefixes and versions (leading
203: zeros are ignored in version numbers, see example below).
204: If an input string does not match the pattern, then it is compared
205: using the byte compare function.
206: All string comparisons are performed in the C locale.
1.44 jmc 207: .Pp
208: For example:
209: .Bd -literal -offset indent
210: $ ls sort* | sort -V
211: sort-1.022.tgz
212: sort-1.23.tgz
213: sort-1.23.1.tgz
214: sort-1.024.tgz
215: sort-1.024.003.
216: sort-1.024.003.tgz
217: sort-1.024.07.tgz
218: sort-1.024.009.tgz
219: .Ed
1.1 millert 220: .El
221: .Pp
1.12 aaron 222: The treatment of field separators can be altered using these options:
1.1 millert 223: .Bl -tag -width indent
1.41 millert 224: .It Fl b , Fl Fl ignore-leading-blanks
225: Ignore leading blank space when determining the start
226: and end of a restricted sort key (see
227: .Fl k ) .
228: If
1.1 millert 229: .Fl b
1.41 millert 230: is specified before the first
1.1 millert 231: .Fl k
1.41 millert 232: option, it applies globally to all key specifications.
233: Otherwise,
1.1 millert 234: .Fl b
1.41 millert 235: can be attached independently to each
1.1 millert 236: .Ar field
1.41 millert 237: argument of the key specifications.
238: .It Xo
1.42 jmc 239: .Fl k Ar field1 Ns Op , Ns Ar field2 ,
240: .Fl Fl key Ns = Ns Ar field1 Ns Op , Ns Ar field2
1.41 millert 241: .Xc
242: Define a restricted sort key that has the starting position
243: .Ar field1 ,
244: and optional ending position
245: .Ar field2
246: of a key field.
247: The
248: .Fl k
249: option may be specified multiple times,
250: in which case subsequent keys are compared after earlier keys compare equal.
251: The
1.1 millert 252: .Fl k
1.41 millert 253: option replaces the obsolete options
254: .Cm \(pl Ns Ar pos1
255: and
256: .Fl Ns Ar pos2 ,
257: but the old notation is also supported.
258: .It Fl t Ar char , Fl Fl field-separator Ns = Ns Ar char
259: Use
1.3 aaron 260: .Ar char
1.41 millert 261: as the field separator character.
1.8 aaron 262: The initial
1.1 millert 263: .Ar char
1.12 aaron 264: is not considered to be part of a field when determining key offsets.
1.1 millert 265: Each occurrence of
266: .Ar char
267: is significant (for example,
268: .Dq Ar charchar
269: delimits an empty field).
270: If
271: .Fl t
1.6 pjanzen 272: is not specified, the default field separator is a sequence of
273: blank-space characters, and consecutive blank spaces do
274: .Em not
275: delimit an empty field; further, the initial blank space
276: .Em is
277: considered part of a field when determining key offsets.
1.41 millert 278: To use NUL as field separator, use
279: .Fl t
280: \'\\0\'.
281: .It Fl z , Fl Fl zero-terminated
282: Use NUL as the record separator.
283: By default, records in the files are expected to be separated by
284: the newline characters.
285: With this option, NUL (\'\\0\') is used as the record separator character.
1.37 jmc 286: .El
287: .Pp
1.41 millert 288: Other options:
1.37 jmc 289: .Bl -tag -width indent
1.41 millert 290: .It Fl Fl batch-size Ns = Ns Ar num
291: Specify maximum number of files that can be opened by
292: .Nm
293: at once.
294: This option affects behavior when having many input files or using
295: temporary files.
1.51 millert 296: The minimum value is 2.
1.41 millert 297: The default value is 16.
298: .It Fl Fl compress-program Ns = Ns Ar program
299: Use
300: .Ar program
301: to compress temporary files.
302: When invoked with no arguments,
303: .Ar program
304: must compress standard input to standard output.
305: When called with the
306: .Fl d
307: option, it must decompress standard input to standard output.
308: If
309: .Ar program
310: fails,
311: .Nm
312: will exit with an error.
1.37 jmc 313: The
1.41 millert 314: .Xr compress 1
315: and
316: .Xr gzip 1
317: utilities meet these requirements.
318: .It Fl Fl debug
319: Print some extra information about the sorting process to the
320: standard output.
321: .It Fl Fl files0-from Ns = Ns Ar filename
322: Take the input file list from the file
1.44 jmc 323: .Ar filename .
1.41 millert 324: The file names must be separated by NUL
325: (like the output produced by the command
326: .Dq find ... -print0 ) .
1.49 jmc 327: .It Fl Fl heapsort
328: Try to use heap sort, if the sort specifications allow.
329: This sort algorithm cannot be used with
330: .Fl u
331: and
332: .Fl s .
333: .It Fl Fl help
334: Print the help text and exit.
335: .It Fl Fl mergesort , Fl H
1.41 millert 336: Use mergesort.
337: This is a universal algorithm that can always be used,
338: but it is not always the fastest.
1.49 jmc 339: .It Fl Fl mmap
340: Try to use file memory mapping system call.
341: It may increase speed in some cases.
1.41 millert 342: .It Fl Fl qsort
343: Try to use quick sort, if the sort specifications allow.
344: This sort algorithm cannot be used with
345: .Fl u
346: and
347: .Fl s .
1.49 jmc 348: .It Fl Fl radixsort
349: Try to use radix sort, if the sort specifications allow.
350: The radix sort can only be used for trivial locales (C and POSIX),
351: and it cannot be used for numeric or month sort.
352: Radix sort is very fast and stable.
353: .It Fl Fl random-source Ns = Ns Ar filename
354: For random sort, the contents of
355: .Ar filename
356: are used as the source of the
357: .Sq seed
358: data for the hash function.
359: Two invocations of random sort with the same seed data will use
360: produce the same result if the input is also identical.
361: By default, the
362: .Xr arc4random_buf 3
363: function is used instead.
364: .It Fl Fl version
365: Print the version and exit.
1.3 aaron 366: .El
1.1 millert 367: .Pp
1.12 aaron 368: A field is defined as a maximal sequence of characters other than the
1.6 pjanzen 369: field separator and record separator
370: .Pq newline by default .
371: Initial blank spaces are included in the field unless
372: .Fl b
373: has been specified;
374: the first blank space of a sequence of blank spaces acts as the field
375: separator and is included in the field (unless
376: .Fl t
377: is specified).
378: For example, by default all blank spaces at the beginning of a line are
379: considered to be part of the first field.
1.1 millert 380: .Pp
1.12 aaron 381: Fields are specified by the
1.45 jmc 382: .Fl k Ar field1 Ns Op , Ns Ar field2
1.41 millert 383: option.
384: If
1.1 millert 385: .Ar field2
1.41 millert 386: is missing, the end of the key defaults to the end of the line.
1.1 millert 387: .Pp
388: The arguments
389: .Ar field1
390: and
391: .Ar field2
392: have the form
393: .Em m.n
1.6 pjanzen 394: .Em (m,n > 0)
1.41 millert 395: and can be followed by one or more of the modifiers
1.6 pjanzen 396: .Cm b , d , f , i ,
1.41 millert 397: .Cm n , g , M
1.6 pjanzen 398: and
399: .Cm r ,
400: which correspond to the options discussed above.
1.41 millert 401: When
402: .Cm b
403: is specified it applies only to
404: .Ar field1
405: or
406: .Ar field2
407: where it is specified while the rest of the modifiers
408: apply to the whole key field regardless if they are
409: specified only with
410: .Ar field1
411: or
412: .Ar field2
413: or both.
1.1 millert 414: A
415: .Ar field1
416: position specified by
417: .Em m.n
418: is interpreted as the
419: .Em n Ns th
1.6 pjanzen 420: character from the beginning of the
1.1 millert 421: .Em m Ns th
422: field.
423: A missing
424: .Em \&.n
425: in
426: .Ar field1
427: means
428: .Ql \&.1 ,
429: indicating the first character of the
430: .Em m Ns th
1.12 aaron 431: field; if the
1.1 millert 432: .Fl b
433: option is in effect,
434: .Em n
1.12 aaron 435: is counted from the first non-blank character in the
1.1 millert 436: .Em m Ns th
437: field;
438: .Em m Ns \&.1b
1.12 aaron 439: refers to the first non-blank character in the
1.1 millert 440: .Em m Ns th
441: field.
1.6 pjanzen 442: .No 1\&. Ns Em n
443: refers to the
444: .Em n Ns th
445: character from the beginning of the line;
446: if
447: .Em n
448: is greater than the length of the line, the field is taken to be empty.
1.1 millert 449: .Pp
1.41 millert 450: .Em n Ns th
451: positions are always counted from the field beginning, even if the field
452: is shorter than the number of specified positions.
453: Thus, the key can really start from a position in a subsequent field.
454: .Pp
1.1 millert 455: A
456: .Ar field2
457: position specified by
458: .Em m.n
1.12 aaron 459: is interpreted as the
1.1 millert 460: .Em n Ns th
1.41 millert 461: character (including separators) from the beginning of the
1.1 millert 462: .Em m Ns th
463: field.
464: A missing
465: .Em \&.n
1.5 aaron 466: indicates the last character of the
1.1 millert 467: .Em m Ns th
468: field;
1.5 aaron 469: .Em m
1.1 millert 470: = \&0
471: designates the end of a line.
472: Thus the option
473: .Fl k Ar v.x,w.y
1.41 millert 474: is synonymous with the obsolete option
1.1 millert 475: .Cm \(pl Ns Ar v-\&1.x-\&1
476: .Fl Ns Ar w-\&1.y ;
477: when
478: .Em y
479: is omitted,
480: .Fl k Ar v.x,w
481: is synonymous with
1.5 aaron 482: .Cm \(pl Ns Ar v-\&1.x-\&1
1.19 tdeval 483: .Fl Ns Ar w\&.0 .
1.41 millert 484: The obsolete
1.1 millert 485: .Cm \(pl Ns Ar pos1
486: .Fl Ns Ar pos2
487: option is still supported, except for
1.3 aaron 488: .Fl Ns Ar w\&.0b ,
1.1 millert 489: which has no
490: .Fl k
491: equivalent.
492: .Sh ENVIRONMENT
493: .Bl -tag -width Fl
1.46 jmc 494: .It Ev GNUSORT_NUMERIC_COMPATIBILITY
495: If defined
496: .Fl t
497: will not override the locale numeric symbols, that is, thousand
498: separators and decimal separators.
499: By default, if we specify
500: .Fl t
501: with the same symbol as the thousand separator or decimal point,
502: the symbol will be treated as the field separator.
1.50 jmc 503: Older behavior was less definite: the symbol was treated as both field
1.46 jmc 504: separator and numeric separator, simultaneously.
505: This environment variable enables the old behavior.
506: .It Ev LANG
507: Used as a last resort to determine different kinds of locale-specific
1.50 jmc 508: behavior if neither the respective environment variable nor
1.46 jmc 509: .Ev LC_ALL
510: are set.
511: .It Ev LC_ALL
1.50 jmc 512: Locale settings that override all of the other locale settings.
1.46 jmc 513: This environment variable can be used to set all these settings
514: to the same value at once.
1.41 millert 515: .It Ev LC_COLLATE
516: Locale settings to be used to determine the collation for
517: sorting records.
518: .It Ev LC_CTYPE
519: Locale settings to be used to case conversion and classification
520: of characters, that is, which characters are considered
521: whitespaces, etc.
522: .It Ev LC_MESSAGES
523: Locale settings that determine the language of output messages
524: that
525: .Nm
526: prints out.
527: .It Ev LC_NUMERIC
528: Locale settings that determine the number format used in numeric sort.
529: .It Ev LC_TIME
530: Locale settings that determine the month format used in month sort.
1.1 millert 531: .It Ev TMPDIR
1.41 millert 532: Path to the directory in which temporary files will be stored.
1.3 aaron 533: Note that
1.1 millert 534: .Ev TMPDIR
535: may be overridden by the
536: .Fl T
537: option.
1.11 aaron 538: .El
1.1 millert 539: .Sh FILES
540: .Bl -tag -width Pa -compact
1.41 millert 541: .It Pa /var/tmp/.bsdsort.PID.*
542: Temporary files.
1.39 jmc 543: .El
544: .Sh EXIT STATUS
545: The
546: .Nm
547: utility exits with one of the following values:
548: .Pp
549: .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
550: .It 0
1.41 millert 551: Successfully sorted the input files or if used with
552: .Fl C
553: or
554: .Fl c ,
555: the input file already met the sorting criteria.
1.39 jmc 556: .It 1
1.41 millert 557: On disorder (or non-uniqueness) with the
1.39 jmc 558: .Fl C
559: or
560: .Fl c
1.41 millert 561: options.
1.39 jmc 562: .It 2
563: An error occurred.
1.1 millert 564: .El
565: .Sh SEE ALSO
566: .Xr comm 1 ,
1.3 aaron 567: .Xr join 1 ,
1.47 jmc 568: .Xr uniq 1
1.27 dlg 569: .Sh STANDARDS
570: The
571: .Nm
1.28 jmc 572: utility is compliant with the
1.33 jmc 573: .St -p1003.1-2008
1.27 dlg 574: specification.
575: .Pp
576: The flags
1.43 jmc 577: .Op Fl gHhiMRSsTVz
1.28 jmc 578: are extensions to that specification.
1.41 millert 579: .Pp
580: All long options are extensions to the specification.
581: Some are provided for compatibility with GNU
582: .Nm ,
583: others are specific to this implementation.
1.52 ! millert 584: .Pp
! 585: The historic practice of allowing the
! 586: .Fl o
! 587: option to appear after the
! 588: .Ar file
! 589: is supported for compatibility with older versions of
! 590: .Nm .
1.41 millert 591: .Pp
592: The historic key notations
593: .Cm \(pl Ns Ar pos1
594: and
595: .Fl Ns Ar pos2
596: are supported for compatibility with older versions of
597: .Nm
598: but their use is highly discouraged.
1.1 millert 599: .Sh HISTORY
600: A
1.8 aaron 601: .Nm
1.1 millert 602: command appeared in
1.16 mickey 603: .At v3 .
1.41 millert 604: .Sh AUTHORS
1.44 jmc 605: .An Gabor Kovesdan Aq Mt gabor@FreeBSD.org
606: .An Oleg Moskalenko Aq Mt mom040267@gmail.com
1.45 jmc 607: .Sh CAVEATS
1.41 millert 608: This implementation of
1.14 ericj 609: .Nm
610: has no limits on input line length (other than imposed by available
611: memory) or any restrictions on bytes allowed within lines.
612: .Pp
1.41 millert 613: The performance depends highly on locale settings,
614: efficient choice of sort keys and key complexity.
615: The fastest sort is with the C locale, on whole lines, with option
616: .Fl s .
617: In general, the C locale is the fastest, followed by single-byte
618: locales with multi-byte locales being the slowest.
619: The correct collation order respected in all cases.
620: For the key specification, the simpler to process the
621: lines the faster the search will be.
1.14 ericj 622: .Pp
1.41 millert 623: When sorting by arithmetic value, using
624: .Fl n
625: results in much better performance than
626: .Fl g
627: so its use is encouraged whenever possible.
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