SORT(1)

📦
version 9.12 · 27 versions
, in arch rolling

💖 SORT(1) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the sort manual page — it lives in the User Commands section and it is genuinely one of the most iconic little gremlins in your whole toolkit. let's get into it 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

sort — sort lines of text files

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

sort [OPTION]... [FILE]...
sort [OPTION]... --files0-from=F

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So what it does: it writes the sorted concatenation of all the FILE(s) to standard output. that's it. that's the whole vibe. ✨

If you give it no FILE, or if FILE is -, it reads from standard input. very demure, very mindful. 🎀

Also, mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. like, don't try it. it's not optional. periodt.

👑 Ordering options

  • -b, --ignore-leading-blanks — ignore leading blanks when finding sort keys in each line. yes queen, skip the whitespace 💅
  • -d, --dictionary-order — only consider blanks and alphanumeric characters. everything else? not invited to the function 🚫
  • -f, --ignore-case — fold lower case to upper case characters. case? we don't know her 🔥
  • -g, --general-numeric-sort — compare according to general numerical value. the math-y one 🧮
  • -i, --ignore-nonprinting — consider only printable characters. invisible stuff, be gone 🫥
  • -M, --month-sort — compare (unknown) < 'JAN' < ... < 'DEC'. literally a calendar girl moment 📅
  • -h, --human-numeric-sort — compare human readable numbers (e.g., 2K 1G). for the girlies who say "2K" instead of "2048" 💖
  • -n, --numeric-sort — compare according to string numerical value; see full documentation for supported strings. ngl the docs are where the details live 👀
  • -R, --random-sort — shuffle, but group identical keys. See also shuf(1). chaos, but organized chaos 🎲
  • --random-source=FILE — get random bytes from FILE. your randomness has a source now ✨
  • -r, --reverse — reverse the result of comparisons. plot twist 🔄
  • --sort=WORD — sort according to WORD: general-numeric -g, human-numeric -h, month -M, numeric -n, random -R, version -V. one option, six personalities 🌈
  • -V, --version-sort — natural sort of (version) numbers within text. so v2 comes before v10, as it should 🙌

🎀 Other options

  • --batch-size=NMERGE — merge at most NMERGE inputs at once; for more use temp files. don't overbook the merge bestie 😌
  • -c, --check, --check=diagnose-first — check for sorted input; do not sort. just vibes and judgement 🔍
  • -C, --check=quiet, --check=silent — like -c, but do not report first bad line. silent but deadly 🤫
  • --compress-program=PROG — compress temporaries with PROG; decompress them with PROG -d. glow-up via compression 💅
  • --debug — annotate the part of the line used to sort, and warn about questionable usage to standard error. the friend who tells you the truth 🫶
  • --files0-from=F — read input from the files specified by NUL-terminated names in file F; If F is -, read names from standard input. NUL-terminated, not newline-terminated, important bestie ⚠️
  • -k, --key=KEYDEF — sort via a key; KEYDEF gives location and type. the main character option fr fr 👑
  • -m, --merge — merge already sorted files; do not sort. it trusts you. don't betray it 😭
  • -o, --output=FILE — write result to FILE instead of standard output. redirect, but make it chic 🎁
  • -s, --stable — stabilize sort by disabling last-resort comparison. stable like your fave 🌸
  • -S, --buffer-size=SIZE — use SIZE for main memory buffer. feed the machine 🍓
  • -t, --field-separator=SEP — use SEP instead of non-blank to blank transition. custom separator, custom era ✂️
  • -T, --temporary-directory=DIR — use DIR for temporaries, not $TMPDIR or /tmp; multiple options specify multiple directories. hoard directories, why not 🏠
  • --parallel=N — change the number of sorts run concurrently to N. multitasking queen 💫
  • -u, --unique — output only the first of lines with equal keys; with -c, check for strict ordering. duplicates? never met her 🚫
  • -z, --zero-terminated — line delimiter is NUL, not newline. NUL gang rise up 🫡
  • --help — display this help and exit. the classic 🎀
  • --version — output version information and exit. the other classic 🎀

💜 KEYDEF, explained (the part everyone skips and then regrets)

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. lowkey feral but okay 👀

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. seriously. do it. it will save your whole evening 😭

🧚 SIZE suffixes

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, R, Q.

⚠️ *** 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. not me finding out my sort order was locale-coded the whole time 💀

🌟 AUTHOR 🌟

Written by Mike Haertel and Paul Eggert. legends, honestly 👑

📢 REPORTING BUGS 📢

Copyright © 2026 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 🦄

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

and that's the whole page bestie 💖 this was GNU coreutils 9.12, dated September 2026 — go forth and sort your lines, you absolute icon, no cap 🎀✨🦋

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