Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!gatech!hao!ames!oliveb!sun!gorodish!guy
From: guy%gorodish@Sun.COM (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,comp.sources.wanted
Subject: Re: Multiple Field Sorts in UNIX(tm)
Message-ID: <24079@sun.uucp>
Date: Thu, 23-Jul-87 15:26:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: sun.24079
Posted: Thu Jul 23 15:26:53 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 25-Jul-87 08:45:39 EDT
References: <2459@whuts.UUCP> <758@custom.UUCP> <7651@mimsy.UUCP> <2105@sphinx.uchicago.edu>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Lines: 23
Xref: mnetor comp.unix.questions:3312 comp.sources.wanted:1696

> Hmm.  My sort(1) man page says that you can apply the -n option (and
> -dbfir) to individual sort fields, as in:
> 
> 	$ sort +2n -3 +5df -6 +7n  file
> 
> I wonder: is this System V specific (we run SysVr2.1)?  Do you BSD users
> have these options?

*V7* users had those options, which is why both BSD and S5 users have
them.  From the 4.2BSD manual page:

	The notation "+'pos1' -'pos2'" restricts a sort key to a field
	beginning at "pos1" and ending just before "pos2".  "Pos1" and
	"pos2" each have the form "'m'.'n'", optionally followed by one or
	more of the flags "bdfinr", where "m" tells a number of fields
	to skip from the beginning of the line and "n" tells a number of
	characters to skip further.  *If any flags are present they override
	all the global ordering options for this key.*  If the "b" option
	is in effect "n" is counted from the first nonblank in the field;
	"b" is attached independently to "pos2".
	Guy Harris
	{ihnp4, decvax, seismo, decwrl, ...}!sun!guyoups:uptions,h