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.\" DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE! It was generated by help2man 1.50.1.
.TH SORT "1" "February 2026" "GNU coreutils 9.10" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
sort \- sort lines of text files
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B sort
[\fI\,OPTION\/\fR]... [\fI\,FILE\/\fR]...
.br
.B sort
[\fI\,OPTION\/\fR]... \fI\,--files0-from=F\/\fR
.SH DESCRIPTION
.\" Add any additional description here
.PP
Write sorted concatenation of all FILE(s) to standard output.
.PP
With no FILE, or when FILE is \-, read standard input.
.PP
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
Ordering options:
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort-b'\fB\-b, \-\-ignore\-leading\-blanks\fP\X'tty: link'
ignore leading blanks when finding sort keys in each line
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort-d'\fB\-d, \-\-dictionary\-order\fP\X'tty: link'
consider only blanks and alphanumeric characters
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort-f'\fB\-f, \-\-ignore\-case\fP\X'tty: link'
fold lower case to upper case characters
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort-g'\fB\-g, \-\-general\-numeric\-sort\fP\X'tty: link'
compare according to general numerical value
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort-i'\fB\-i, \-\-ignore\-nonprinting\fP\X'tty: link'
consider only printable characters
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort-M'\fB\-M, \-\-month\-sort\fP\X'tty: link'
compare (unknown) < 'JAN' < ... < 'DEC'
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort-h'\fB\-h, \-\-human\-numeric\-sort\fP\X'tty: link'
compare human readable numbers (e.g., 2K 1G)
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort-n'\fB\-n, \-\-numeric\-sort\fP\X'tty: link'
compare according to string numerical value;
see full documentation for supported strings
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort-R'\fB\-R, \-\-random\-sort\fP\X'tty: link'
shuffle, but group identical keys. See also \fBshuf\fP(1)
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort--random-source'\fB\-\-random\-source=FILE\fP\X'tty: link'
get random bytes from FILE
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort-r'\fB\-r, \-\-reverse\fP\X'tty: link'
reverse the result of comparisons
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort--sort'\fB\-\-sort=WORD\fP\X'tty: link'
sort according to WORD:
general\-numeric \fB\-g\fR, human\-numeric \fB\-h\fR, month \fB\-M\fR,
numeric \fB\-n\fR, random \fB\-R\fR, version \fB\-V\fR
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort-V'\fB\-V, \-\-version\-sort\fP\X'tty: link'
natural sort of (version) numbers within text
.PP
Other options:
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort--batch-size'\fB\-\-batch\-size=NMERGE\fP\X'tty: link'
merge at most NMERGE inputs at once; for more use temp files
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort-c'\fB\-c, \-\-check, \-\-check=\,diagnose\-first\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
check for sorted input; do not sort
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort-C'\fB\-C, \-\-check=\,quiet\/, \-\-check=\,silent\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
like \fB\-c\fR, but do not report first bad line
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort--compress-program'\fB\-\-compress\-program=PROG\fP\X'tty: link'
compress temporaries with PROG; decompress them with PROG \fB\-d\fR
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort--debug'\fB\-\-debug\fP\X'tty: link'
annotate the part of the line used to sort,
and warn about questionable usage to standard error
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort--files0-from'\fB\-\-files0\-from=F\fP\X'tty: link'
read input from the files specified by NUL\-terminated names in file F;
If F is \-, read names from standard input
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort-k'\fB\-k, \-\-key=\,KEYDEF\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
sort via a key; KEYDEF gives location and type
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort-m'\fB\-m, \-\-merge\fP\X'tty: link'
merge already sorted files; do not sort
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort-o'\fB\-o, \-\-output=\,FILE\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
write result to FILE instead of standard output
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort-s'\fB\-s, \-\-stable\fP\X'tty: link'
stabilize sort by disabling last\-resort comparison
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort-S'\fB\-S, \-\-buffer\-size=\,SIZE\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
use SIZE for main memory buffer
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort-t'\fB\-t, \-\-field\-separator=\,SEP\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
use SEP instead of non\-blank to blank transition
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort-T'\fB\-T, \-\-temporary\-directory=\,DIR\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
use DIR for temporaries, not $TMPDIR or \fI\,/tmp\/\fP;
multiple options specify multiple directories
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort--parallel'\fB\-\-parallel=N\fP\X'tty: link'
change the number of sorts run concurrently to N
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort-u'\fB\-u, \-\-unique\fP\X'tty: link'
output only the first of lines with equal keys;
with \fB\-c\fR, check for strict ordering
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#sort-z'\fB\-z, \-\-zero\-terminated\fP\X'tty: link'
line delimiter is NUL, not newline
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/sort#sort--help'\fB\-\-help\fP\X'tty: link'
display this help and exit
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/sort#sort--version'\fB\-\-version\fP\X'tty: link'
output version information and exit
.PP
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 \fB\-t\fR nor \fB\-b\fR is in
effect, characters in a field are counted from the beginning of the preceding
whitespace. OPTS is one or more single\-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 \fB\-\-debug\fR to diagnose incorrect key usage.
.PP
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.
.PP
*** 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.
.SH AUTHOR
Written by Mike Haertel and Paul Eggert.
.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
Report bugs to: bug\-coreutils@gnu.org
.br
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
.br
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
.br
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
.SH COPYRIGHT
Copyright \(co 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
.br
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
\fBshuf\fP(1), \fBuniq\fP(1)
.PP
.br
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/sort>
.br
or available locally via: info \(aq(coreutils) sort invocation\(aq
|
