.\" DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE!  It was generated by help2man 1.47.3.
.TH SORT "1" "January 2024" "GNU coreutils 8.32" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
sort \- sort lines of text files
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B sort
[\fI\,OPTION\/\fR]... [\fI\,FILE\/\fR]...
.br
.B sort
[\fI\,OPTION\/\fR]... \fI\,--files0-from=F\/\fR
.SH DESCRIPTION
.\" Add any additional description here
.PP
Write sorted concatenation of all FILE(s) to standard output.
.PP
With no FILE, or when FILE is \-, read standard input.
.PP
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
Ordering options:
.TP
\fB\-b\fR, \fB\-\-ignore\-leading\-blanks\fR
ignore leading blanks
.TP
\fB\-d\fR, \fB\-\-dictionary\-order\fR
consider only blanks and alphanumeric characters
.TP
\fB\-f\fR, \fB\-\-ignore\-case\fR
fold lower case to upper case characters
.TP
\fB\-g\fR, \fB\-\-general\-numeric\-sort\fR
compare according to general numerical value
.TP
\fB\-i\fR, \fB\-\-ignore\-nonprinting\fR
consider only printable characters
.TP
\fB\-M\fR, \fB\-\-month\-sort\fR
compare (unknown) < 'JAN' < ... < 'DEC'
.TP
\fB\-h\fR, \fB\-\-human\-numeric\-sort\fR
compare human readable numbers (e.g., 2K 1G)
.TP
\fB\-n\fR, \fB\-\-numeric\-sort\fR
compare according to string numerical value
.TP
\fB\-R\fR, \fB\-\-random\-sort\fR
shuffle, but group identical keys.  See shuf(1)
.TP
\fB\-\-random\-source\fR=\fI\,FILE\/\fR
get random bytes from FILE
.TP
\fB\-r\fR, \fB\-\-reverse\fR
reverse the result of comparisons
.TP
\fB\-\-sort\fR=\fI\,WORD\/\fR
sort according to WORD:
general\-numeric \fB\-g\fR, human\-numeric \fB\-h\fR, month \fB\-M\fR,
numeric \fB\-n\fR, random \fB\-R\fR, version \fB\-V\fR
.TP
\fB\-V\fR, \fB\-\-version\-sort\fR
natural sort of (version) numbers within text
.PP
Other options:
.TP
\fB\-\-batch\-size\fR=\fI\,NMERGE\/\fR
merge at most NMERGE inputs at once;
for more use temp files
.TP
\fB\-c\fR, \fB\-\-check\fR, \fB\-\-check\fR=\fI\,diagnose\-first\/\fR
check for sorted input; do not sort
.TP
\fB\-C\fR, \fB\-\-check\fR=\fI\,quiet\/\fR, \fB\-\-check\fR=\fI\,silent\/\fR
like \fB\-c\fR, but do not report first bad line
.TP
\fB\-\-compress\-program\fR=\fI\,PROG\/\fR
compress temporaries with PROG;
decompress them with PROG \fB\-d\fR
.TP
\fB\-\-debug\fR
annotate the part of the line used to sort,
and warn about questionable usage to stderr
.TP
\fB\-\-files0\-from\fR=\fI\,F\/\fR
read input from the files specified by
NUL\-terminated names in file F;
If F is \- then read names from standard input
.TP
\fB\-k\fR, \fB\-\-key\fR=\fI\,KEYDEF\/\fR
sort via a key; KEYDEF gives location and type
.TP
\fB\-m\fR, \fB\-\-merge\fR
merge already sorted files; do not sort
.TP
\fB\-o\fR, \fB\-\-output\fR=\fI\,FILE\/\fR
write result to FILE instead of standard output
.TP
\fB\-s\fR, \fB\-\-stable\fR
stabilize sort by disabling last\-resort comparison
.TP
\fB\-S\fR, \fB\-\-buffer\-size\fR=\fI\,SIZE\/\fR
use SIZE for main memory buffer
.TP
\fB\-t\fR, \fB\-\-field\-separator\fR=\fI\,SEP\/\fR
use SEP instead of non\-blank to blank transition
.TP
\fB\-T\fR, \fB\-\-temporary\-directory\fR=\fI\,DIR\/\fR
use DIR for temporaries, not $TMPDIR or \fI\,/tmp\/\fP;
multiple options specify multiple directories
.TP
\fB\-\-parallel\fR=\fI\,N\/\fR
change the number of sorts run concurrently to N
.TP
\fB\-u\fR, \fB\-\-unique\fR
with \fB\-c\fR, check for strict ordering;
without \fB\-c\fR, output only the first of an equal run
.TP
\fB\-z\fR, \fB\-\-zero\-terminated\fR
line delimiter is NUL, not newline
.TP
\fB\-\-help\fR
display this help and exit
.TP
\fB\-\-version\fR
output version information and exit
.PP
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 origin 1, and
the stop position defaults to the line's end.  If neither \fB\-t\fR nor \fB\-b\fR is in
effect, characters in a field are counted from the beginning of the preceding
whitespace.  OPTS is one or more single\-letter ordering options [bdfgiMhnRrV],
which override global ordering options for that key.  If no key is given, use
the entire line as the key.  Use \fB\-\-debug\fR to diagnose incorrect key usage.
.PP
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.
.PP
*** WARNING ***
The locale specified by the environment affects sort order.
Set LC_ALL=C to get the traditional sort order that uses
native byte values.
.SH AUTHOR
Written by Mike Haertel and Paul Eggert.
.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
.br
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
.SH COPYRIGHT
Copyright \(co 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
.br
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
shuf(1), uniq(1)
.PP
.br
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/sort>
.br
or available locally via: info \(aq(coreutils) sort invocation\(aq