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
          questionable 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
   origin 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
   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 --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
   order.  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: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
   Report sort translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT

   Copyright    2016  Free Software Foundation, Inc.  License GPLv3+: GNU
   GPL version 3 or later <http://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 at: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/sort>
   or available locally via: info '(coreutils) sort invocation'

Opportunity

Personal Opportunity - Free software gives you access to billions of dollars of software at no cost. Use this software for your business, personal use or to develop a profitable skill. Access to source code provides access to a level of capabilities/information that companies protect though copyrights. Open source is a core component of the Internet and it is available to you. Leverage the billions of dollars in resources and capabilities to build a career, establish a business or change the world. The potential is endless for those who understand the opportunity.

Business Opportunity - Goldman Sachs, IBM and countless large corporations are leveraging open source to reduce costs, develop products and increase their bottom lines. Learn what these companies know about open source and how open source can give you the advantage.

Free Software

Free Software provides computer programs and capabilities at no cost but more importantly, it provides the freedom to run, edit, contribute to, and share the software. The importance of free software is a matter of access, not price. Software at no cost is a benefit but ownership rights to the software and source code is far more significant.

Free Office Software - The Libre Office suite provides top desktop productivity tools for free. This includes, a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation engine, drawing and flowcharting, database and math applications. Libre Office is available for Linux or Windows.

Free Books

The Free Books Library is a collection of thousands of the most popular public domain books in an online readable format. The collection includes great classical literature and more recent works where the U.S. copyright has expired. These books are yours to read and use without restrictions.

Source Code - Want to change a program or know how it works? Open Source provides the source code for its programs so that anyone can use, modify or learn how to write those programs themselves. Visit the GNU source code repositories to download the source.

Education

Study at Harvard, Stanford or MIT - Open edX provides free online courses from Harvard, MIT, Columbia, UC Berkeley and other top Universities. Hundreds of courses for almost all major subjects and course levels. Open edx also offers some paid courses and selected certifications.

Linux Manual Pages - A man or manual page is a form of software documentation found on Linux/Unix operating systems. Topics covered include computer programs (including library and system calls), formal standards and conventions, and even abstract concepts.