bug#16944: Sort program (sort.c) I can't sort by ascii collating sequence over a first column of text.

[Leslie Satenstein]

I have a problem with the sort utility that I cannot seem to do with
sort.

I have a file x (below) and I wish to sort only the first column
according to the ascii table, in other words, a sort where the sort
follows the
A..Za..z  and of course the other characters as well. 

I created this file x to illustrate the problem.

This is  First line of file x is a space character, the backspace char
and the textHost=fedora20-leslie  

RAW Unsorted input (27 lines) filename x

Host=fedora20-leslie             |             |                       scan
from|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
scandir.ini                      |20140223 1245|
e2c713788f9492be9e61d1d0badcc8ca|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
sha.c                            |20140223 1245|
f20dc5f72f0235d84a07e8a6b80ab036|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
dirdepth                         |20140223 1245|
9f2ff1bd8b133ca0de8d124ad7d761d2|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
scandirmd5.c                     |20140223 1245|
c38735f1cdf0bbcf7e352876d7f28793|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
md5Good.tar                      |20140223 1245|
8190181f115e74742e1291b915950531|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
inih_r27.tar                     |20140223 1245|
a8da6db331c8fe638cbb8c6940ce303e|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
test.sh                          |20140223 1245|
503c5fe5bd4ee7f2ac53d7df0a371bb6|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
scandir32.c                      |20140223 1245|
86c005228b275b55249cde39c2e95d32|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
scandir32                        |20140223 1245|
5d26167e56b5e6efe203bdbfb4483c6f|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
md5.c                            |20140223 1245|
2095124ffca65c307a840082185f5be9|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
crc32.o                          |20140223 1245|
10a49aede5f82d00205c1f89a8931731|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
sha                              |20140223 1245|
07f74c7c98e3498ca11dba9a5c56edc9|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
md5.o                            |20140223 1245|
4bb7270967299fa7fbb5ae4826f9c4c0|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
mddriver.c                       |20140223 1245|
581b61b0fc14df5e4a78b0db6d0d7ca4|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
sha1.c                           |20140223 1245|
74832014b5b65a34d5eaf273c7393116|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
scandirmd5                       |20140223 1245|
864a8f6dfbeb16bef1f09d71759aeca4|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
scandir                          |20140223 1245|
864a8f6dfbeb16bef1f09d71759aeca4|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
gcc.txt                          |20140223 1245|
b8917c1a087abbf74f0294dad9cbf698|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
scandirsha1.c                    |20140223 1245|
6f8e62c3c10c09922f41c643ff0592f8|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
sha1.h                           |20140223 1245|
d2559d2af8a19ea6bc64b35f69c4eea6|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
dirdepth.c                       |20140223 1245|
a7c3f1c02245aec9a1b651e11018ff82|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
x                                |20140305 1506|
d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
crc32.c                          |20140223 1245|
4d7a5dbb246898ff9d3ba19c0ded7f5b|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
DATE2                            |20140223 1245|
e606fe0237c786174d2087090f81644a|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
DATE1                            |20140223 1245|
e606fe0237c786174d2087090f81644a|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
md5                              |20140223 1245|
a0509bd4723729ad76ce341844b0db92|/home/leslie/Development/scandir



sort x   places the first line, which collates lower than all the rest
of column 1  into row 8 within the output.
It also dropped the line with the character x that was showing in column
1 of the raw input.
(more below) the following list

crc32.c                          |20140223 1245|
4d7a5dbb246898ff9d3ba19c0ded7f5b|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
crc32.o                          |20140223 1245|
10a49aede5f82d00205c1f89a8931731|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
DATE1                            |20140223 1245|
e606fe0237c786174d2087090f81644a|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
DATE2                            |20140223 1245|
e606fe0237c786174d2087090f81644a|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
dirdepth                         |20140223 1245|
9f2ff1bd8b133ca0de8d124ad7d761d2|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
dirdepth.c                       |20140223 1245|
a7c3f1c02245aec9a1b651e11018ff82|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
gcc.txt                          |20140223 1245|
b8917c1a087abbf74f0294dad9cbf698|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
Host=fedora20-leslie             |             |                       scan
from|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
inih_r27.tar                     |20140223 1245|
a8da6db331c8fe638cbb8c6940ce303e|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
md5                              |20140223 1245|
a0509bd4723729ad76ce341844b0db92|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
md5.c                            |20140223 1245|
2095124ffca65c307a840082185f5be9|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
md5Good.tar                      |20140223 1245|
8190181f115e74742e1291b915950531|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
md5.o                            |20140223 1245|
4bb7270967299fa7fbb5ae4826f9c4c0|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
mddriver.c                       |20140223 1245|
581b61b0fc14df5e4a78b0db6d0d7ca4|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
scandir                          |20140223 1245|
864a8f6dfbeb16bef1f09d71759aeca4|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
scandir32                        |20140223 1245|
5d26167e56b5e6efe203bdbfb4483c6f|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
scandir32.c                      |20140223 1245|
86c005228b275b55249cde39c2e95d32|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
scandir.ini                      |20140223 1245|
e2c713788f9492be9e61d1d0badcc8ca|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
scandirmd5                       |20140223 1245|
864a8f6dfbeb16bef1f09d71759aeca4|/home/leslie/Development/scandir

I get partial results by using the -f parameter as
sort -f   x      (or sort -fb )
Host=fedora20-leslie             |             |                       scan
from|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
crc32.c                          |20140223 1245|
4d7a5dbb246898ff9d3ba19c0ded7f5b|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
crc32.o                          |20140223 1245|
10a49aede5f82d00205c1f89a8931731|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
DATE1                            |20140223 1245|
e606fe0237c786174d2087090f81644a|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
DATE2                            |20140223 1245|
e606fe0237c786174d2087090f81644a|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
dirdepth                         |20140223 1245|
9f2ff1bd8b133ca0de8d124ad7d761d2|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
dirdepth.c                       |20140223 1245|
a7c3f1c02245aec9a1b651e11018ff82|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
gcc.txt                          |20140223 1245|
b8917c1a087abbf74f0294dad9cbf698|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
inih_r27.tar                     |20140223 1245|
a8da6db331c8fe638cbb8c6940ce303e|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
md5                              |20140223 1245|
a0509bd4723729ad76ce341844b0db92|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
md5.c                            |20140223 1245|
2095124ffca65c307a840082185f5be9|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
md5.o                            |20140223 1245|
4bb7270967299fa7fbb5ae4826f9c4c0|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
md5Good.tar                      |20140223 1245|
8190181f115e74742e1291b915950531|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
mddriver.c                       |20140223 1245|
581b61b0fc14df5e4a78b0db6d0d7ca4|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
scandir                          |20140223 1245|
864a8f6dfbeb16bef1f09d71759aeca4|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
scandir.ini                      |20140223 1245|
e2c713788f9492be9e61d1d0badcc8ca|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
scandir32                        |20140223 1245|
5d26167e56b5e6efe203bdbfb4483c6f|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
scandir32.c                      |20140223 1245|
86c005228b275b55249cde39c2e95d32|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
scandirmd5                       |20140223 1245|
864a8f6dfbeb16bef1f09d71759aeca4|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
scandirmd5.c                     |20140223 1245|
c38735f1cdf0bbcf7e352876d7f28793|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
scandirsha1.c                    |20140223 1245|
6f8e62c3c10c09922f41c643ff0592f8|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
sha                              |20140223 1245|
07f74c7c98e3498ca11dba9a5c56edc9|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
sha.c                            |20140223 1245|
f20dc5f72f0235d84a07e8a6b80ab036|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
sha1.c                           |20140223 1245|
74832014b5b65a34d5eaf273c7393116|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
sha1.h                           |20140223 1245|
d2559d2af8a19ea6bc64b35f69c4eea6|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
test.sh                          |20140223 1245|
503c5fe5bd4ee7f2ac53d7df0a371bb6|/home/leslie/Development/scandir
x                                |20140305 1506|
d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e|/home/leslie/Development/scandir

The sort order is not correct with folding, the missing line with the x
has returned and my header line remains in row 1, 
BUT...
I am after an ascii sequence sort and out of place are the rows with
DATE1 and DATE2.  They should actually appears as lines 2 and 3.

How do I get the sort to respect the ascii sorting sequence?  I can do
so for later fields such as sorting any other column such as ...
sort -fb -t '|' -k2  x   to   sort -fb -t '|' k4   x

My observation is that there does not appear to be an option that allows
me to sort by column 1 without shifting to the left of the all the
leading whitespace characters.
-
If I have found a shortcoming, I would like to propose a new flag  so
that the sort would actually generate the first column in pure ascii
sequence.
If the sort is  not broken can you propose a new flag to force ascii
collating sequence?.

(A new flag would allow new functionality but continue to allow the
existing sort program use to work as before).

Would like to hear back from  you.  

Leslie Satenstein
address@hidden