Your bug report #10985: sort -k behavior possible problem: field span across the boundaries which was filed against the coreutils package, has been closed. The explanation is attached below, along with your original report. If you require more details, please reply to 10985@debbugs.gnu.org. -- 10985: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=10985 GNU Bug Tracking System Contact help-debbugs@gnu.org with problems