bug#23673: wrong sorting order

[Assaf Gordon]

tag 23673 notabug
close 23673
stop

Hello Alain,

On 06/01/2016 09:16 AM, alainm wrote:
> I need to perform a sort based on the first 3 indexes of a line (sort -k 1,3 -n 
> truc.lst):
>
> The 0 coordinates are not placed before the 2 coordinates, it looks like the 
> spaces are ignore:
[...]
> address@hidden 1src]$  sort  -k 1,3 -n truc.lst

To sort multiple numeric fields, use separate "-k" parameters, like so:

    sort -k1,1 -k2,2 -k3,3 -n truc.list

If in the future you wish to combine different ordering (e.g. numeric and 
alphanumeric, or some fields in reverse order),
consider specifying the order in each key instead of globally:

    sort -k1n,1 -k2nr,2 -k3n,3 truc.list

> address@hidden 1src]$ sort --version
> sort (GNU coreutils) 8.4

If you upgrade to coreutils version 8.6 or later, sort will accept '--debug' 
option, which will help you troubleshoot such cases:

    $ sort --debug -k 1,3 -n truc.lst
    sort: using ‘en_US.UTF-8’ sorting rules
    sort: key 1 is numeric and spans multiple fields
    [...]


I'm marking this bug as done, but discussion can continue by replying to this 
thread.

regards,
 - assaf