Hi, The following explanation for coreutils manual is not very clear.
"Also note that the ‘n’ modifier was applied to the field-end specifier for the first key. It would have been equivalent to specify ‘-k 2n,2’ or ‘-k 2n,2n’. All modifiers except ‘b’ apply to the associated field, regardless of whether the modifier character is attached to the field-start and/or the field-end part of the key specifier." According to the manual and the following output, '-k 1,2n' is the same as '-k 1n,2' and '-k 1n,2n'. But isn't this syntax a little confusing? Shouldn't '-k 1n,2n' be the same as '-k1,1n -k2,2n'? Also I don't understand what "associated field" refers to? > cat input1.txt 1 10 1 9 > sort --key=1,2n input1.txt 1 10 1 9 > sort --key=1n,2n input1.txt 1 10 1 9 > sort --key=1,1n --key=2,2n input1.txt 1 9 1 10 -- Regards, Peng
