Text processing

Linux sort command

Sort lines of text. Add -n for numeric order or -r for reverse order.

Availability: Common Linux commands; shell built-ins and external implementations may differ by distribution.中文

Syntax

sort [OPTION]... [FILE]...

Examples

Sort lines by numeric value.

sort -n scores.txt

Sort colon-separated records by their third field numerically.

sort -t: -k3,3n /etc/passwd

Parameters, options and clauses

Option / clause	Description
`-n, --numeric-sort`	Compare according to string numerical value.
`-r, --reverse`	Reverse the result of comparisons.
`-u, --unique`	Output only the first of equal lines.
`-k, --key=KEYDEF`	Sort by a selected field or character range.
`-t, --field-separator=SEP`	Use SEP instead of whitespace between fields.
`-h, --human-numeric-sort`	Compare human-readable numbers such as 2K and 1G.
`-f, --ignore-case`	Fold lowercase letters to uppercase for comparison.

Safety note

Review a command and its target before running it. Commands that alter files, services, accounts, disks, permissions or databases may be difficult to reverse. Test in a safe environment and keep backups.

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