Subject: Re: bug#13354: sort: File Merge Order is Suboptimal with Many Passes

From: Jason Bucata <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2013 09:48:27 -0600

On Fri, Jan 04, 2013 at 11:01:50AM +0000, P�draig Brady wrote:
> On 01/04/2013 04:07 AM, Jason Bucata wrote:
> > To get it ideal, we'd need a priority queue implementation here, maybe a
> > heap or something.  (Irony of having to maintain a sorted list of files in a
> > sort program is duly noted...)  It would be an improvement, though, to
> > handle merging a smaller batch of files at the beginning, the equivalent of
> > adding 0-byte dummy files at the front.  That might be quicker to implement,
> > unless there's a GPL'd heap library lying around somewhere...
> 
> There is a little heap lib already used by sort:
> http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=blob;f=gl/lib/heap.c;hb=HEAD
> Would that suffice?
> 
> thanks,
> Pádraig.

Oh, good to know.  If you're asking me, I'm sure it's fine, though I guess
it's up to whoever will write the fix.

I don't know what it would take for me to be able to get a copyright
disclaimer from my employer, so I'm probably not in a position to develop a
patch for this myself.  I'm hoping some established developer will see this
and be able to step in.

Jason B.

-- 
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel
important.
	-- T. S. Eliot