sort - sort lines in a file

Last revision July 20, 2004

sort reads an input file(s) (standard input if no file name is given) and copies it to the output, after first merging the lines from the input files as needed and sorting these lines as specified by options. Its general capabilities are:

Can sort lines into ASCII collating order or numeric value order.

Can specify which portions of the line, called fields, are to be the sort keys, and what the hierarchy of sorting should be.

If more than one input file is given, they will be sorted as one large concatenated file. Can also merge previously sorted files.

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