2015-06-08 12:43:32 +0200, Erik Auerswald: [...] > > I'm not even sure having a tool just for that specific task > > would make sense though. Here, it sounds more like a job for a > > high level language like perl/python... (what if I want to sort > > on roman numerals now, week day names, astrological signs...) > > Well, IP addresses are often encountered on Internet connected computers. > ;-)
And roman numerals are common in bibliography processing. The "sort" command has nothing to do with "IP addresses". OK, there's already a -M for month sorting (locale dependant) useful in log sorting. There's already a -h and -V. Those are still quite generic. But IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are very specific (and the right sort order not necessarily obvious (IPv4 vs v6, link-local addresses, different IPv4 notations...)) Maybe there's a way to allow that without having to implement the specifics in sort. Like sort key flags to invoke commands: sort '-k1,1|ip2hex' '-k2,2n|roman2int' '-k3,3|iconv -t us//TRANSLIT' For sort to invoke those ip2hex/roman2int/iconv shell command lines to pre-process the sort keys before sorting. -- Stephane