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

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

-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 POS2 (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-blank to blank 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; without -c, 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.

info sort

should give you access to the complete manual.