SORT(1) User Commands 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; see full documenta-
tion for supported strings
-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 ques-
tionable 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
output only the first of lines with equal keys; with -c, check
for strict ordering
-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 ori-
gin 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 begin-
ning of the preceding whitespace. OPTS is one or more single-letter or-
dering 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, R, Q.
*** WARNING *** The locale specified by the environment affects sort or-
der. 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: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
SEE ALSO
shuf(1), uniq(1)
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/sort>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) sort invocation'
Packaged by Debian (9.7-3)
Copyright © 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/li-
censes/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
GNU coreutils 9.7 June 2025 SORT(1)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Tue Dec 16 04:56:06 CET 2025.