Sponsored Content
Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers Explanation of the sort command Post 302757629 by jimbojames on Thursday 17th of January 2013 08:54:58 PM
Old 01-17-2013
Explanation of the sort command

Hi everyone,

I am wondering if someone could please break down and explain the following sort command for me:

Code:
ls ${DEST_LOCATION}/${FILES} | sort -rt -k 4,4n | head -1

I have tried working it out using 'man sort', but on AIX there is not a great explanation of this function. I know that it searches the source directory for the named file and returns the name of the latest dated, but I am particularly confused as to what
Code:
-k 4,4n | head -1

is doing.

Thanks in advance.

Last edited by jimbojames; 01-20-2013 at 07:57 PM.. Reason: Solved.
 

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. Shell Programming and Scripting

sed command explanation needed

Hi, Could you please explain me the below statement -- phrase wise. sed -e :a -e '$q;N;'$cnt',$D;ba' abc.txt > xyz.txt if suppose $cnt contains value: 10 it copies last 9 lines of abc.txt to xyz.txt why it is copying last 9 rather than 10. and also what is ba and $D over there in... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: subbukns
4 Replies

2. Shell Programming and Scripting

command line explanation

Hello everyone, I found this command line in a website: perl -pi.bak -we's/\z/Your new line\n/ if $. == 2;' your_text_file.txt With this command line you can insert a new line anywhere you want in a text without overwriting what's in it. -p causes perl to assume a loop around your... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: goude
4 Replies

3. Shell Programming and Scripting

How to Sort Floating Numbers Using the Sort Command?

Hi to all. I'm trying to sort this with the Unix command sort. user1:12345678:3.5:2.5:8:1:2:3 user2:12345679:4.5:3.5:8:1:3:2 user3:12345687:5.5:2.5:6:1:3:2 user4:12345670:5.5:2.5:5:3:2:1 user5:12345671:2.5:5.5:7:2:3:1 I need to get this: user3:12345687:5.5:2.5:6:1:3:2... (7 Replies)
Discussion started by: daniel.gbaena
7 Replies

4. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

SED command explanation

can someone please explain the below sed command.. sed 's/\(*|\)\(.*\)/\2\1/' (6 Replies)
Discussion started by: raghu_shekar
6 Replies

5. Shell Programming and Scripting

sed sorting command explanation

sed '$!N; /^\(.*\)\n\1$/!P; D' i found this file which removes duplicates irrespective for sorted or unsorted file. keep first occurance and remove the further occurances. can any1 explain how this is working.. i need to remove duplicates following file. duplicate criteria is not the... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: mukeshguliao
3 Replies

6. UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

command explanation

can anyone please tell me what does this expression means , i am under probation and need some explanation :) $AUDIT_DIR -type f -mtime +$AUDIT_EXPIRE \ -exec rm {} > /dev/null 2>&1 \; AUDIT_DIR="/var/log/" AUDIT_EXPIRE='30' Please use code tags! (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: semaan
4 Replies

7. Shell Programming and Scripting

Need explanation a of command in linux

Hi All I ran a script in Linux. In the script i have lines like && echo "Failed: Missing ${CM_ENV_FILE} \n" && return 1 . ${CM_ENV_FILE} Where CM_ENV_FILE = /data/ds/dpr_ebicm_uat//etl/cm3_0/entities/BBME/parameters/cm.env But its taking this path... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: vee_789
1 Replies

8. Shell Programming and Scripting

sed command explanation

Will someone give me an explanation on how the sed command below works. sed 's/.*//' Thanks! (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: scj2012
3 Replies

9. UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers

Explanation for sort utility and its detail

I tried to use sort utility and typed sort --help, read one of lines; its -k option, and part of it: I am really not getting it Anyone do me a useful favor to save me out of my ignorance ? Please use correct tags as required by forum rules! (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: abdulbadii
1 Replies

10. UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers

Explanation of Nawk command

Hi Folks, I am struggling to understand nawk command which was used by another developer. Can you please explain what each character or string is doing here below: if ; then (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: kirans.229
3 Replies
SORT(1) 						      General Commands Manual							   SORT(1)

NAME
sort - sort a file of ASCII lines SYNOPSIS
sort [-bcdfimnru] [-tc] [-o name] [+pos1] [-pos2] file ... OPTIONS
-b Skip leading blanks when making comparisons -c Check to see if a file is sorted -d Dictionary order: ignore punctuation -f Fold upper case onto lower case -i Ignore nonASCII characters -m Merge presorted files -n Numeric sort order -o Next argument is output file -r Reverse the sort order -t Following character is field separator -u Unique mode (delete duplicate lines) EXAMPLES
sort -nr file # Sort keys numerically, reversed sort +2 -4 file # Sort using fields 2 and 3 as key sort +2 -t: -o out # Field separator is : sort +.3 -.6 # Characters 3 through 5 form the key DESCRIPTION
Sort sorts one or more files. If no files are specified, stdin is sorted. Output is written on standard output, unless -o is specified. The options +pos1 -pos2 use only fields pos1 up to but not including pos2 as the sort key, where a field is a string of characters delim- ited by spaces and tabs, unless a different field delimiter is specified with -t. Both pos1 and pos2 have the form m.n where m tells the number of fields and n tells the number of characters. Either m or n may be omitted. SEE ALSO
comm(1), grep(1), uniq(1). SORT(1)
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 07:42 PM.
Unix & Linux Forums Content Copyright 1993-2022. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy