Kindly help : sort

charandevu · #1 (**permalink**) 04-10-2008

Iam new to Unix ....analyzing the code
Can any one pls explain what does it mean by below code

Code:

sort +0 -1 +1 -2 +2 -3n +3 -4n +4 -5n    file.txt  -o

awaiting for reply .....

ilan · #2 (**permalink**) 04-27-2008

Hi there,

it is an obsolete method of sorting according to the specific feilds and characters in them; you would see -k key as a replacement of this method.

+m refers to a feild_start and -m is feild_end where m=0,1,2,3,.....to some no.of feilds available in the file to be sorted.
and the 'n' used with (-3n, -4n and -5n) specifies to make a numeric sort on that particular feild.
so, your code does sort on first feild, second feild, numeric sort on third feild, numeric sort on fourth feild and numeric sort on fifth feild.

and the -o option is to specify a file to store this soretd o/p.

by default space would be the feild seperator; optionally you can use -t with some character as a feild seperator.

-ilan

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