Re: bug in the unix join command or maybe in the sort command

[Paul Eggert]

Robert Castelo <address@hidden> writes:

> q.txt======(tab-separated columns)
> aa      value-aa
> a       value-a
> ===========

> both versions 5.2.1 and 5.3.0 output
>
> aa      value-aa
> a       value-a
>
> when sorting over the entire line:
>
> sort q.txt
>
> or more specifically:
>
> sort -k 1,2 q.txt
>
> should not sort output first "a       value-a" than "aa       value-aa"
> also when sorting over the entire line ??


Yes.  And I get the expected behavior with coreutils 5.3.0:

        $ sort q.txt
        a       value-a
        aa      value-aa

Most likely this is a locale problem.  What is the output of the
"locale" command on your host?  Here's what happens with mine:

        $ locale
        LANG=POSIX
        LC_CTYPE="POSIX"
        LC_NUMERIC="POSIX"
        LC_TIME="POSIX"
        LC_COLLATE="POSIX"
        LC_MONETARY="POSIX"
        LC_MESSAGES="POSIX"
        LC_PAPER="POSIX"
        LC_NAME="POSIX"
        LC_ADDRESS="POSIX"
        LC_TELEPHONE="POSIX"
        LC_MEASUREMENT="POSIX"
        LC_IDENTIFICATION="POSIX"
        LC_ALL=