GNU bug report logs - #11433
Bug in GNU sort with large value for the -S option

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Package: coreutils;

Reported by: Rich Burridge <rich.burridge <at> oracle.com>

Date: Tue, 8 May 2012 16:20:02 UTC

Severity: normal

Tags: notabug

Done: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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Report forwarded to bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org:
bug#11433; Package coreutils. (Tue, 08 May 2012 16:20:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.
Acknowledgement sent to Rich Burridge <rich.burridge <at> oracle.com>:
New bug report received and forwarded. Copy sent to bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org. (Tue, 08 May 2012 16:20:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Rich Burridge <rich.burridge <at> oracle.com>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: Bug in GNU sort with large value for the -S option
Date: Tue, 08 May 2012 09:01:25 -0700

GNU sort doesn't like a really large value for the -S option.


To recreate:

First create a 5GB file of random data.

  $ /usr/bin/dd if=/dev/urandom of=input bs=1048576 count=5000

You can successfully sort it with:

  $ export LC_ALL='C'
  $ /usr/bin/sort input >output

But if you add a large -S option, you get:

  $ export LC_ALL='C'
  $ /usr/bin/sort -S 4G <input >output
  /usr/bin/sort: -S argument `4G' too large

Reproduced with:
  sort version 8.13 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
  sort version 8.16 on Solaris 11

Thanks.
Information forwarded to bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org:
bug#11433; Package coreutils. (Tue, 08 May 2012 16:54:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #8 received at 11433 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Rich Burridge <rich.burridge <at> oracle.com>
Cc: 11433 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#11433: Bug in GNU sort with large value for the -S option
Date: Tue, 08 May 2012 09:51:37 -0700

On 05/08/2012 09:01 AM, Rich Burridge wrote:
>   $ /usr/bin/sort -S 4G <input >output
>   /usr/bin/sort: -S argument `4G' too large

I don't observe this behavior with
sort 8.16 on CentOS 5.8 on x86-64.

Perhaps you're running on 32-bit platforms,
for which 4 GiB is indeed too large?
If so, 'sort' is operating correctly.
Added tag(s) notabug. Request was from Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu> to control <at> debbugs.gnu.org. (Tue, 08 May 2012 21:26:01 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.
bug closed, send any further explanations to 11433 <at> debbugs.gnu.org and Rich Burridge <rich.burridge <at> oracle.com> Request was from Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu> to control <at> debbugs.gnu.org. (Tue, 08 May 2012 21:26:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.
bug archived. Request was from Debbugs Internal Request <help-debbugs <at> gnu.org> to internal_control <at> debbugs.gnu.org. (Wed, 06 Jun 2012 11:24:03 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.
This bug report was last modified 13 years and 67 days ago.

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