evmsort(1) General Commands Manual evmsort(1)
NAME
evmsort - Sorts events
SYNOPSIS
evmsort [-A] [-s sort_spec] [-t show_template] [filename | -]
OPTIONS
Automatically starts evmshow to produce a formatted display of the sorted events. The specification to be used in sorting events. See the
DESCRIPTION section for the syntax of the sort_spec, and for details of the default sort order. Template string to be passed to evmshow if
the -A option is also specified. If the -A option is not specified, this argument is ignored. See the evmshow(1) reference page for a
description of the template string.
OPERANDS
Reads event sources from filename. If filename is omitted, or is specified as -, event sources are read from stdin.
DESCRIPTION
The evmsort command reads and sorts a stream of EVM events. By default, events are read from stdin, and are sorted into ascending time-
stamp order. Sorted events are written to the command's stdout stream in the form of raw EVM events.
The sort order can be specified by supplying a sort_spec, either through the -s option or by setting the environment variable EVM_SORT_SPEC
to the required specification. The specification is a character string of the form:
@key_item[+|-] [ :@key_item[+|-] ]
The key_item is the name of any EVM standard data item and the @ character is optional. If the special key_item @@ is specified, the
event's format data item is expanded as described in the evmshow(1) reference page, and the resulting string is used as the sort key.
The optional trailing + or - character indicates ascending (+) or descending (-) sort. By default, items are sorted in ascending order.
Multiple items can be specified in the string by separating them with colon characters (:). The left-most key_item in the specification is
the most significant key.
If a key_item that is included in the sort specification is not present in an event read from the input stream, the item is considered to
have a low value for that event. For example: if input events are being sorted in ascending order according to their name data items, and
one event does not contain a name, that event will appear first in the output stream.
If the -A option is specified, evmsort automatically starts evmshow and pipes the sorted event stream into it, producing a sorted and for-
matted display of events. If a show_template argument is supplied, the specified template string is passed to evmshow through its own -t
option. See the evmshow(1) reference page for more information.
RESTRICTIONS
The evmsort command rejects attempts to output raw events to a terminal device.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables affect the execution of evmsort: This variable contains a string formatted as described for a
sort_spec. If the -s flag is omitted, the string is used as the sort_spec.
EXAMPLES
The following example retrieves all events with a priority of 300 or greater, sorts them into descending order of priority (most urgent
first) and then ascending order of time (oldest first), and automatically runs evmshow to display them. evmget -f '[priority >= 300]' |
evmsort -s "@priority-:@timestamp" |
evmshow -t "@priority @timestamp @@"
The following example yields a list of all events, sorted latest first within name. evmget | evmsort -s "@name:@timestamp-" |
evmshow -t "@name @timestamp @@"
The following example yields a list of all events, sorted first in order of their formatted messages and then in ascending order of time.
Events are passed to evmshow for display, and subsequently to the more command for viewing. evmget | evmsort -A -s "@@:@timestamp" -t
"@timestamp @@" | more
EXIT VALUES
The following exit values are returned: Successful completion An error occurred
SEE ALSO
Commands: evmget(1), evmpost(1), evmshow(1), evmwatch(1)
Files: evmchannel.conf(4)
Event Management: EVM(5)
EVM Events: EvmEvent(5)
Event Filter: EvmFilter(5)
delim off
evmsort(1)