sort
The sort filter can either alphabetize all of the lines in a
specified file according to the first letter in each line or it can merge
files together into one sorted file. The syntax to sort a file is:
rohan% sort filename
The syntax to merge sorted files is:
rohan% sort -m file1 file2 file3 > newfilename
It is almost always necessary to use an option when using sort
because the computer sorts data in ascending order according to the
ASCII code. This means
that the number 1 will always come before the number
9 and the uppercase letters will always come before
lowercase letters, etc. Using the sort options forces the
computer to sort the items correctly.
There are several options that can be used with sort to modify it's function. They are:
-
-o - creates a new file which contains the sorted information
-f - treats capital and lowercase letters the same
-n - sorts numbers correctly
-r - sorts in reverse order
-m - merges files that have been sorted.
-u - deletes duplicate lines in the sorted file
-d - ignores punctuation while sorting
The syntax when using options is:
rohan% sort filename -option newfile
Technical Briefs
ROHAN Help Index