SORT(1)                          User Commands                          SORT(1)

NAME
       sort - sort lines of text files

SYNOPSIS
       sort [OPTION]... [FILE]...
       sort [OPTION]... ‐‐files0‐from=F

DESCRIPTION
       Write sorted concatenation of all FILE(s) to standard output.

       With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

       Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
       Ordering options:

       -b, --ignore-leading-blanks
              ignore leading blanks

       -d, --dictionary-order
              consider only blanks and alphanumeric characters

       -f, --ignore-case
              fold lower case to upper case characters

       -g, --general-numeric-sort
              compare according to general numerical value

       -i, --ignore-nonprinting
              consider only printable characters

       -M, --month-sort
              compare (unknown) < ’JAN’ < ... < ’DEC’

       -h, --human-numeric-sort
              compare human readable numbers (e.g., 2K 1G)

       -n, --numeric-sort
              compare according to string numerical value

       -R, --random-sort
              shuffle, but group identical keys.  See shuf(1)

       --random-source=FILE
              get random bytes from FILE

       -r, --reverse
              reverse the result of comparisons

       --sort=WORD
              sort  according  to  WORD:  general-numeric -g, human-numeric -h,
              month -M, numeric -n, random -R, version -V

       -V, --version-sort
              natural sort of (version) numbers within text

       Other options:

       --batch-size=NMERGE
              merge at most NMERGE inputs at once; for more use temp files

       -c, --check, --check=diagnose-first
              check for sorted input; do not sort

       -C, --check=quiet, --check=silent
              like -c, but do not report first bad line

       --compress-program=PROG
              compress temporaries with PROG; decompress them with PROG -d

       --debug
              annotate the part of the line used to sort, and warn about  ques‐
              tionable usage to stderr

       --files0-from=F
              read  input  from  the files specified by NUL-terminated names in
              file F; If F is - then read names from standard input

       -k, --key=KEYDEF
              sort via a key; KEYDEF gives location and type

       -m, --merge
              merge already sorted files; do not sort

       -o, --output=FILE
              write result to FILE instead of standard output

       -s, --stable
              stabilize sort by disabling last-resort comparison

       -S, --buffer-size=SIZE
              use SIZE for main memory buffer

       -t, --field-separator=SEP
              use SEP instead of non-blank to blank transition

       -T, --temporary-directory=DIR
              use DIR for temporaries, not $TMPDIR or  /tmp;  multiple  options
              specify multiple directories

       --parallel=N
              change the number of sorts run concurrently to N

       -u, --unique
              with  -c,  check for strict ordering; without -c, output only the
              first of an equal run

       -z, --zero-terminated
              line delimiter is NUL, not newline

       --help display this help and exit

       --version
              output version information and exit

       KEYDEF is F[.C][OPTS][,F[.C][OPTS]] for start and stop position, where F
       is a field number and C a character position in the field; both are ori‐
       gin 1, and the stop position defaults to the line’s end.  If neither  -t
       nor  -b  is in effect, characters in a field are counted from the begin‐
       ning of the preceding whitespace.  OPTS is one or more single-letter or‐
       dering options [bdfgiMhnRrV], which override global ordering options for
       that key.  If no key is given, use the entire  line  as  the  key.   Use
       --debug to diagnose incorrect key usage.

       SIZE  may  be followed by the following multiplicative suffixes: % 1% of
       memory, b 1, K 1024 (default), and so on for M, G, T, P, E, Z, Y.

       *** WARNING *** The locale specified by the environment affects sort or‐
       der.  Set LC_ALL=C to get the traditional sort order  that  uses  native
       byte values.

AUTHOR
       Written by Mike Haertel and Paul Eggert.

REPORTING BUGS
       GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
       Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright © 2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc.  License GPLv3+: GNU GPL
       version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
       This  is  free  software:  you  are  free to change and redistribute it.
       There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO
       shuf(1), uniq(1)

       Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/sort>
       or available locally via: info '(coreutils) sort invocation'

GNU coreutils 9.1                 January 2024                          SORT(1)