---
name: "uu-sort"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "uutils-coreutils"
version: "0.12.0-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/uu-sort"
---

# uu-sort(1)

Display sorted concatenation of all FILE(s). With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

## NAME

sort - Display sorted concatenation of all FILE(s). With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

## SYNOPSIS

**sort** \[OPTION\]... \[FILE\]...

## DESCRIPTION

Display sorted concatenation of all FILE(s). With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

## OPTIONS

- **--help**

  Print help information.

- **--version**

  Print version information.

- **--sort**

  *Possible values:*

  - •

    general-numeric

  - •

    human-numeric

  - •

    month

  - •

    numeric

  - •

    version

  - •

    random

- **-h**, **--human-numeric-sort**

  compare according to human readable sizes, eg 1M \> 100k

- **-M**, **--month-sort**

  compare according to month name abbreviation

- **-n**, **--numeric-sort**

  compare according to string numerical value

- **-g**, **--general-numeric-sort**

  compare according to string general numerical value

- **-V**, **--version-sort**

  Sort by SemVer version number, eg 1.12.2 \> 1.1.2

- **-R**, **--random-sort**

  shuffle in random order

- **--random-source** *\<FILE\>*

  use FILE as a source of random data

- **-d**, **--dictionary-order**

  consider only blanks and alphanumeric characters

- **-m**, **--merge**

  merge already sorted files; do not sort

- **-c**, **--check**

  check for sorted input; do not sort

  *Possible values:*

  - •

    silent

  - •

    quiet

  - •

    diagnose-first

- **-C**, **--check-silent**

  exit successfully if the given file is already sorted, and exit with status 1 otherwise.

- **-f**, **--ignore-case**

  fold lower case to upper case characters

- **-i**, **--ignore-nonprinting**

  ignore nonprinting characters

- **-b**, **--ignore-leading-blanks**

  ignore leading blanks when finding sort keys in each line

- **-o**, **--output** *\<FILENAME\>*

  write output to FILENAME instead of stdout

- **-r**, **--reverse**

  reverse the output

- **-s**, **--stable**

  stabilize sort by disabling last-resort comparison

- **-u**, **--unique**

  output only the first of an equal run

- **-k**, **--key**

  sort by a key

- **-t**, **--field-separator**

  custom separator for -k

- **-z**, **--zero-terminated**

  line delimiter is NUL, not newline

- **--parallel** *\<NUM\_THREADS\>*

  change the number of threads running concurrently to NUM\_THREADS

- **-S**, **--buffer-size** *\<SIZE\>*

  sets the maximum SIZE of each segment in number of sorted items

- **-T**, **--temporary-directory** *\<DIR\>*

  use DIR for temporaries, not $TMPDIR or /tmp

- **--compress-program** *\<PROG\>*

  compress temporary files with PROG, decompress with PROG -d; PROG has to take input from stdin and output to stdout

- **--batch-size** *\<N\_MERGE\>*

  Merge at most N\_MERGE inputs at once.

- **--files0-from** *\<NUL\_FILE\>*

  read input from the files specified by NUL-terminated NUL\_FILE

- **--debug**

  underline the parts of the line that are actually used for sorting

- \[*files*\]

  ## EXTRA

The key format is FIELD\[.CHAR\]\[OPTIONS\]\[,FIELD\[.CHAR\]\]\[OPTIONS\].

Fields by default are separated by the first whitespace after a non-whitespace character. Use -t to specify a custom separator. In the default case, whitespace is appended at the beginning of each field. Custom separators however are not included in fields.

FIELD and CHAR both start at 1 (i.e. they are 1-indexed). If there is no end specified after a comma, the end will be the end of the line. If CHAR is set 0, it means the end of the field. CHAR defaults to 1 for the start position and to 0 for the end position.

Valid options are: MbdfhnRrV. They override the global options for this key.

## VERSION

v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0