Reference: sort

sort

sort [options] [files]

-b
-c
-d
-f
-i: Ignore nonprinting characters (those outside ASCII range 040-176).
-k fieldspec: Specify significance of input fields for sorting. See the fuller description below. Solaris only.
-m
-M
-n
-o file
-r: Reverse the order of the sort.
-tc: Fields are separated with c (default is any whitespace).
-T dir
-u
-y[kmem]
-zrecsz
+n [-m]: Skip n fields before sorting, and sort up to field position m. If m is missing, sort to end of line. Positions take the form a.b, which means character b of field a. If .b is missing, sort at the first character of the field. Counting starts at zero. Solaris allows fields to have optional trailing modifiers, as in the -k option.

A fieldspec has the form fieldstart[type][,fieldend[type]].

wc -l * | sort -rn

Alphabetize a list of words, remove duplicates, and print the frequency of each word:

sort -fd wordlist | uniq -c

Sort the password file numerically by the third field (user ID):

sort +2n -t: /etc/passwd

cd /home; du -sk * | sort -nr | head -20


Reference: soelim		Reference: sortbib