sort(1)

💖 sort(1) — the manual page, but make it cute 💖

okay bestie, so this is sort from the General Commands Manual, and honestly? it's the moment. it's giving main character energy for your text files. let's get into it 🫶

---

✨ NAME ✨

sort — display sorted concatenation of all FILE(s). With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input. no notes, that's just what she does 💅

---

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

sort [--help] [--version] [--sort] [-h|--human-numeric-sort]
[-M|--month-sort] [-n|--numeric-sort] [-g|--general-numeric-sort]
[-V|--version-sort] [-R|--random-sort] [--random-source]
[-d|--dictionary-order] [-m|--merge] [-c|--check] [-C|--check-silent]
[-f|--ignore-case] [-i|--ignore-nonprinting]
[-b|--ignore-leading-blanks] [-o|--output] [-r|--reverse] [-s|--stable]
[-u|--unique] [-k|--key] [-t|--field-separator] [-z|--zero-terminated]
[--parallel] [-S|--buffer-size] [-T|--temporary-directory]
[--compress-program] [--batch-size] [--files0-from] [--debug] [files]

---

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

Display sorted concatenation of all FILE(s). With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

like. that's it. that's the whole vibe. she takes your stuff and she puts it in order, no cap 🧚

---

💅 OPTIONS 💅

so many flags. we love a girl with range. 💜

• --help — print help information.
• --version — print version information.
• --sort — pick your sorting vibe. the possible values are:
  • general-numeric
  • human-numeric
  • month
  • numeric
  • version
  • random
• -h, --human-numeric-sort — compare according to human readable sizes, eg 1M > 100k. yes bestie, she understands that M beats k. iconic.
• -M, --month-sort — compare according to month name abbreviation. january girlies rise up 🗓️
• -n, --numeric-sort — compare according to string numerical value.
• -g, --general-numeric-sort — compare according to string general numerical value.
• -V, --version-sort — sort by SemVer version number, eg 1.12.2 > 1.1.2. semver slay 🏷️
• -R, --random-sort — shuffle in random order. chaos mode, lowkey fun 🎲
• --random-source <FILE> — use FILE as a source of random data.
• -d, --dictionary-order — consider only blanks and alphanumeric characters.
• -m, --merge — merge already sorted files; do not sort. she's just combining, not judging 💞
• -c, --check — check for sorted input; do not sort. the possible values are:
  • silent
  • quiet
  • diagnose-first
• -C, --check-silent — exit successfully if the given file is already sorted, and exit with status 1 otherwise.
• -f, --ignore-case — fold lower case to upper case characters. case? never heard of her.
• -i, --ignore-nonprinting — ignore nonprinting characters.
• -b, --ignore-leading-blanks — ignore leading blanks when finding sort keys in each line.
• -o, --output <FILENAME> — write output to FILENAME instead of stdout.
• -r, --reverse — reverse the output. plot twist 🌀
• -s, --stable — stabilize sort by disabling last-resort comparison.
• -u, --unique — output only the first of an equal run.
• -k, --key — sort by a key.
• -t, --field-separator — custom separator for -k.
• -z, --zero-terminated — line delimiter is NUL, not newline.
• --parallel <NUM_THREADS> — change the number of threads running concurrently to <italic>NUM_THREADS*. multitasking queen ⚡
• -S, --buffer-size <SIZE> — sets the maximum SIZE of each segment in number of sorted items.
• -T, --temporary-directory <DIR> — use DIR for temporaries, not $TMPDIR or /tmp.
• --compress-program <PROG> — compress temporary files with PROG, decompress with PROG -d; PROG has to take input from stdin and output to stdout.
• --batch-size <N_MERGE> — merge at most N_MERGE inputs at once.
• --files0-from <NUL_FILE> — read input from the files specified by NUL-terminated NUL_FILE.
• --debug — underline the parts of the line that are actually used for sorting. she's showing her work, we stan a transparent icon 🔍
• [files] — your files, bestie.

---

🦋 EXTRA 🦋

okay this part is the key format and it's lowkey the most important part, so pay attention babe:

The key format is FIELD[.CHAR][OPTIONS][,FIELD[.CHAR]][OPTIONS].

Fields by default are separated by the first whitespace after a non-whitespace character. Use -t to specify a custom separator. In the default case, whitespace is appended at the beginning of each field. Custom separators however are not included in fields.

FIELD and CHAR both start at 1 (i.e. they are 1-indexed). If there is no end specified after a comma, the end will be the end of the line. If CHAR is set 0, it means the end of the field. CHAR defaults to 1 for the start position and to 0 for the end position.

Valid options are: MbdfhnRrV. They override the global options for this key. periodt. 💫

ngl the indexing trips people up every single time — 1 is the start, 0 means the end of the field. write that down bestie 📝

---

⭐ VERSION ⭐

v(uutils coreutils) 0.7.0

---

and that's the whole page, bestie!! you ate that. go sort something gorgeous 💖✨🎀🦋🌸

this has been sort (uutils coreutils) 0.7.0 — mwah, love u, bye 🫶💜🌈