Manual: gnusort

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 documentation 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 questionable 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 origin 1, and the stop position defaults to the line's end.  If neither -t nor -b is in ef‐
       fect, characters in a field are counted from the beginning of the preceding whitespace.	OPTS is	 one  or  more	sin‐
       gle-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.

       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.

AUTHOR
       Written by Mike Haertel and Paul Eggert.

REPORTING BUGS
       GNU coreutils online help: 
       Report any translation bugs to 

SEE ALSO
       shuf(1), uniq(1)

       Full documentation 
       or available locally via: info '(coreutils) sort invocation'

       Packaged by Ubuntu (9.7-3ubuntu2)
       Copyright © 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
       License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later .
       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					January 2026						     SORT(1)