SORT(1)

NAME
sort - sort lines of text files

SYNOPSIS
sort [OPTION]... [FILE]...
sort [OPTION]... --files0-from=F

DESCRIPTION

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

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

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

-b, --ignore-leading-blanks
    ignore leading blanks when finding sort keys in each line

-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'

-h, --human-numeric-sort
    compare human readable numbers (e.g., 2K 1G)

-n, --numeric-sort
    compare according to string numerical value; see full documentation for supported strings

-R, --random-sort
    shuffle, but group identical keys. See also shuf(1)

--random-source=FILE
    get random bytes from FILE

-r, --reverse
    reverse the result of comparisons

--sort=WORD
    sort according to WORD: general-numeric -g, human-numeric -h, month -M, numeric -n, random -R, version -V

-V, --version-sort
    natural sort of (version) numbers within text

Other options:

--batch-size=NMERGE
    merge at most NMERGE inputs at once; for more use temp files

-c, --check, --check=diagnose-first
    check for sorted input; do not sort

-C, --check=quiet, --check=silent
    like -c, but do not report first bad line

--compress-program=PROG
    compress temporaries with PROG; decompress them with PROG -d

--debug
    annotate the part of the line used to sort, and warn about questionable usage to standard error

--files0-from=F
    read input from the files specified by NUL-terminated names in file F; If F is -, read names from standard input

-k, --key=KEYDEF
    sort via a key; KEYDEF gives location and type

-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-blank to blank transition

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

--parallel=N
    change the number of sorts run concurrently to N

-u, --unique
    output only the first of lines with equal keys; with -c, check for strict ordering

-z, --zero-terminated
    line delimiter is NUL, not newline

--help
    display this help and exit

--version
    output version information and exit

KEYDEF is F[.C][OPTS][,F[.C][OPTS]] for start and stop position, where F is a field number and C a character position in the field; both are origin 1, and the stop position defaults to the line's end. If neither -t nor -b is in effect, characters in a field are counted from the beginning of the preceding whitespace. OPTS is one or more single-letter ordering options [bdfgiMhnRrV], which override global ordering options for that key. If no key is given, use the entire line as the key. Use --debug to diagnose incorrect key usage.

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, R, Q.

*** 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

Report Gentoo bugs to: https://bugs.gentoo.org/
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>

SEE ALSO
shuf(1), uniq(1)

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/sort>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) sort invocation'

Packaged by Gentoo (9.11-r1 (p0))
Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.