redhat man page for sort

SORT(1) 							   User Commands							   SORT(1)

NAME
       sort - sort lines of text files

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

DESCRIPTION
       Write sorted concatenation of all FILE(s) to standard output.

       Ordering options:

       Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

       -b, --ignore-leading-blanks ignore leading blanks

       -d, --dictionary-order
	      consider only blanks and alphanumeric characters

       -f, --ignore-case
	      fold lower case to upper case characters

       -g, --general-numeric-sort
	      compare according to general numerical value

       -i, --ignore-nonprinting
	      consider only printable characters

       -M, --month-sort
	      compare (unknown) < `JAN' < ... < `DEC'

       -n, --numeric-sort
	      compare according to string numerical value

       -r, --reverse
	      reverse the result of comparisons

       Other options:

       -c, --check
	      check whether input is sorted; do not sort

       -k, --key=POS1[,POS2]
	      start a key at POS1, end it at POS 2 (origin 1)

       -m, --merge
	      merge already sorted files; do not sort

       -o, --output=FILE
	      write result to FILE instead of standard output

       -s, --stable
	      stabilize sort by disabling last-resort comparison

       -S, --buffer-size=SIZE
	      use SIZE for main memory buffer

       -t, --field-separator=SEP use SEP instead of non- to whitespace transition

       -T, --temporary-directory=DIR
	      use DIR for temporaries, not $TMPDIR or /tmp multiple options specify multiple directories

       -u, --unique
	      with -c: check for strict ordering
	      otherwise: output only the first of an equal run

       -z, --zero-terminated
	      end lines with 0 byte, not newline

       --help display this help and exit

       --version
	      output version information and exit

       POS  is	F[.C][OPTS],  where  F	is the field number and C the character position in the field.	OPTS is one or more single-letter ordering
       options, which override global ordering options for that key.  If no key is given, use the entire line as the key.

       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.

       With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

       *** 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.

AUTHOR
       Written by Mike Haertel and Paul Eggert.

REPORTING BUGS
       Report bugs to <bug-coreutils@gnu.org>.

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (C) 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
       This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICU-
       LAR PURPOSE.

SEE ALSO
       The full documentation for sort is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If the info and sort programs are properly installed at your site,  the
       command

	      info sort

       should give you access to the complete manual.

sort (coreutils) 4.5.3						   October 2002 							   SORT(1)