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Sort command -u removes non-unique item

 
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# 1  
Old 04-22-2014
Sort command -u removes non-unique item
I am wondering why the sort command removes the volume with 0 in it, but orders everything else. I have a list like this:

Code:
cat list1

/vol/list_vol0
/vol/list_vol1
/vol/list_vol2
/vol/list_vol3
/vol/list_vol4
/vol/list_vol5
/vol/list_vol6
/vol/list_vol7
/vol/list_vol8
/vol/list_vol9
/vol/list_vol10
/vol/list_vol11
/vol/list_vol12
/vol/list_vol13
/vol/list_vol14
/vol/list_vol15
/vol/list_vol16

Then the sort command does this:
Why is /vol/list_vol0 removed? Everything else is in proper order
The issue is related to the -u option, but I don't know why it would remove list_vol0 as the entry only appears once. When I remove the -u the sort looks ok. Don't need help on this as I can remove the -u, I just wonder why the -u option would do this.

Code:
cat list1 |sort -u -t_ -n -k2.4

/vol/list_vol1
/vol/list_vol2
/vol/list_vol3
/vol/list_vol4
/vol/list_vol5
/vol/list_vol6
/vol/list_vol7
/vol/list_vol8
/vol/list_vol9
/vol/list_vol10
/vol/list_vol11
/vol/list_vol12
/vol/list_vol13
/vol/list_vol14
/vol/list_vol15
/vol/list_vol16

# 2  
Old 04-23-2014
Whats the content of the first line in your file "list1"
If that is blank, then sort is conserding null and 0 as same and excluding the field with "0"
These 2 Users Gave Thanks to SriniShoo For This Post:
alister drl
# 3  
Old 04-23-2014
To illustrate SriniShoo's point:
Code:
$ printf '%s\n' '' 0 000 0000 0.0000 +0 | sort -n

0
+0
000
0000
0.0000
$ printf '%s\n' '' 0 000 0000 0.0000 +0 | sort -nu

$

Regards,
Alister
 
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