Andreas Schwab <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > However, it's still worrisome that "sort -k 5" doesn't work as it should. > > Note that the whitespace before the number is part of the sort key:
Good point. I missed that. > So if you have right aligned numbers in a field, -n gives the same result > as without -n. That is true in the C locale, but it's not true for other locales. When he sorts these two lines: -rw-r--r-- 1 robertd users 2446 Aug 14 13:32 foobar -rw-r--r-- 1 robertd users 678 Jul 10 15:15 baz using "sort -k 5", he is comparing the following two strings: " 2446 Aug 14 13:32 foobar" " 678 Jul 10 15:15 baz" My guess is that he's using some locale other than "C". In many locales, digits have low priority in textual comparison, and since "Aug" precedes "Jul" this comparison will result in "<", which isn't what he wants. If my guess is right, it's not a bug in "sort", as "sort" is operating according to its specification. He should be using "sort -k 5,5n". _______________________________________________ Bug-coreutils mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-coreutils
