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Re: Did the options for the Unix sort command change?
From: |
Jim Meyering |
Subject: |
Re: Did the options for the Unix sort command change? |
Date: |
Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:35:19 +0200 |
"Michael Alston" <address@hidden> wrote:
> Question:
>
> Did the options for the Unix sort command change?
Yes. Some time ago.
> Why does:
>
> % sort -5 myfile
>
> no longer sort myfile by keying off of column 5?
That precise syntax never worked.
However, syntax like this used to be the norm:
sort +3 -5 myfile
Now, while that is still supported, you usually have to
go through hoops (set the _POSIX2_VERSION envvar to some small number)
to make it work. For details, read "info coreutils standards"
and then the section on sort.