Options

The following options are available, and are passed in the hash reference passed to the function in the format:

  OPTION => VALUE

Where an option can take multiple values (like "I", "k", and "pos"), values may be passed via an anonymous array:

  OPTION => [VALUE1, VALUE2]

Where the OPTION is a switch, it should be passed a boolean VALUE of 1 or 0.

This interface will always be supported, though a more perlish interface may be offered in the future, as well. This interface is basically a mapping of the command-line options to the Unix sort utility.

"I" INPUT

Pass in the input file(s). This can be either a single string with the filename, or an array reference containing multiple filename strings.

"c"

Check that single input fle is ordered as specified by the arguments and the collating sequence of the current locale. No output is produced; only the exit code is affected.

"m"

Merge only; the input files are assumed to already be sorted.

"o" OUTPUT

Specify the name of an OUTPUT file to be used instead of the standard output.

"u"

Unique: Suppresses all but one in each set of lines having equal keys. If used with the c option check that there are no lines with consecutive lines with duplicate keys, in addition to checking that the input file is sorted.

"y" MAX_SORT_RECORDS

Maximum number of lines (records) read before writing to temp file. Default is 200,000. This may eventually change to be kbytes instead of lines. Lines was easier to implement. Can also specify with MAX_SORT_RECORDS environment variable.

"F" MAX_SORT_FILES

Maximum number of temp files to be held open at once. Default to 40, as older Windows ports had quite a small limit. Can also specify with MAX_SORT_FILES environment variable. No temp files will be used at all if MAX_SORT_RECORDS is never reached.

"D"

Send debugging information to STDERR. Behavior subject to change.

The following options override the default ordering rules. When ordering options appear independent of any key field specifications, the requested field ordering rules are applied globally to all sort keys. When attached to a specific key (see k), the specified ordering options override all global ordering options for that key.

"d"

Specify that only blank characters and alphanumeric characters, according to the current locale setting, are significant in comparisons. d overrides i.

"f"

Consider all lower-case characters that have upper-case equivalents, according to the current locale setting, to be the upper-case equivalent for the purposes of comparison.

"i"

Ignores all characters that are non-printable, according to the current locale setting.

"n"

Does numeric instead of string compare, using whatever perl considers to be a number in numeric comparisons.

"r"

Reverse the sense of the comparisons.

"b"

Ignore leading blank characters when determining the starting and ending positions of a restricted sort key. If the b option is specified before the first k option, it is applied to all k options. Otherwise, the b option can be attached indepently to each field_start or field_end option argument (see below).

"t" STRING

Use STRING as the field separator character; char is not considered to be part of a field (although it can be included in a sort key). Each occurrence of char is significant (for example, <char><char> delimits an empty field). If t is not specified, blank characters are used as default field separators; each maximal non-empty sequence of blank characters that follows a non-blank character is a field separator.

"X" STRING

Same as t, but STRING is interpreted as a Perl regular expression instead. Do not escape any characters ("/" characters need to be escaped internally, and will be escaped for you).

The string matched by STRING is not included in the fields themselves, unless demanded by perl's regex and split semantics (e.g., regexes in parentheses will add that matched expression as an extra field). See perlre and "split" in perlfunc.

"R" STRING

Record separator, defaults to newline.

"k" pos1[,pos2]

The keydef argument is a restricted sort key field definition. The format of this definition is:

    field_start[.first_char][type][,field_end[.last_char][type]]
    

where field_start and field_end define a key field restricted to a portion of the line, and type is a modifier from the list of characters b, d, f, i, n, r. The b modifier behaves like the b option, but applies only to the field_start or field_end to which it is attached. The other modifiers behave like the corresponding options, but apply only to the key field to which they are attached; they have this effect if specified with field_start, field_end, or both. If any modifier is attached to a field_start or a field_end, no option applies to either.

Occurrences of the k option are significant in command line order. If no k option is specified, a default sort key of the entire line is used. When there are multiple keys fields, later keys are compared only after all earlier keys compare equal.

Except when the u option is specified, lines that otherwise compare equal are ordered as if none of the options d, f, i, n or k were present (but with r still in effect, if it was specified) and with all bytes in the lines significant to the comparison. The order in which lines that still compare equal are written is unspecified.

"pos" +pos1 [-pos2]

Similar to k, these are mostly obsolete switches, but some people like them and want to use them. Usage is:

    +field_start[.first_char][type] [-field_end[.last_char][type]]
    

Where field_end in k specified the last position to be included, it specifes the last position to NOT be included. Also, numbers are counted from 0 instead of 1. pos2 must immediately follow corresponding +pos1. The rest should be the same as the k option.

Mixing +pos1 pos2 with k is allowed, but will result in all of the +pos1 pos2 options being ordered AFTER the k options. It is best if you Don't Do That. Pick one and stick with it.

Here are some equivalencies:

    pos => '+1 -2'              ->  k => '2,2'
    pos => '+1.1 -1.2'          ->  k => '2.2,2.2'
    pos => ['+1 -2', '+3 -5']   ->  k => ['2,2', '4,5']
    pos => ['+2', '+0b -1']     ->  k => ['3', '1b,1']
    pos => '+2.1 -2.4'          ->  k => '3.2,3.4'
    pos => '+2.0 -3.0'          ->  k => '3.1,4.0'
    

Not Implemented

If the options are not listed as implemented above, or are not listed in TODO below, they are not in the plan for implementation. This includes T and z.