GNU bug report logs - #23214
Possible bug in sort -g

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

From: Matthijs Nescio <matthijs_1971 <at> hotmail.com>
To: "bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org" <bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org>
Subject: Possible bug in sort -g
Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2016 13:46:46 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hi,

I seem to have detected a bug in sort. Can you confirm?

~ $ 
~ $ sort --version
sort (GNU coreutils) 8.4
Copyright (C) 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by Mike Haertel and Paul Eggert.
~ $ cat test.txt | sort -g

2e-1
2e-1
2e-1
2e-1
1.0e-1
1.0e-2
1.0e-2
1.0e-3
1.0e-4
2.0e-1
2.0e-2
2.0e-2
2.0e-2
2.0e-2
3.0e-2
3.0e-2
3.0e-2
3.0e-2
3.0e-2
3.0e-2
15
2e+1
2e+1
2e+1
2e+1
115
119
150
2e+2
2e+2
2e+2
2e+2
2e+3
2e+3
2e+3
2e+3
~ $ cat test.txt
3.0e-2
1.0e-4
2.0e-2
3.0e-2
1.0e-1
2.0e-1
3.0e-2
1.0e-2
2.0e-2
3.0e-2
1.0e-2
2.0e-2
3.0e-2
1.0e-3
2.0e-2
3.0e-2
15
119
115
150
2e+1
2e-1
2e+3
2e+2
2e+1
2e-1
2e+3
2e+2
2e+1
2e-1
2e+3
2e+2
2e+1
2e-1
2e+3
2e+2

~ $  


I think this result is never what anybody would expect; 2e-1 is larger than 1.0e-1 and  1.0e-4 is smaller than 1.0e-1.

The above is running on Ubuntu 14.04. On a Cygwin installation the result is fine.

Thank you, kind regards, Matthijs.

 		 	   		  

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Message #8 received at 23214 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Matthijs Nescio <matthijs_1971 <at> hotmail.com>, 23214 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#23214: Possible bug in sort -g
Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2016 07:54:48 -0700

On 04/04/2016 04:46 AM, Matthijs Nescio wrote:
> I seem to have detected a bug in sort. Can you confirm?
Certainly there is a problem in your 'sort' installation. Perhaps it 
depends on the locale? Try setting LC_ALL=C in your environment.

I cannot reproduce the problem with coreutils 8.4 built on Fedora 23 
x86-64, nor on Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS x86 (this is the oldest Ubuntu release 
that is still supported). Please try building coreutils 8.4 on your 
platform, from source, and using that.

ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/coreutils-8.4.tar.gz

You may have to edit lib/stdio.h by hand, after it's built, to remove 
its declaration of 'gets'.

Message #13 received at 23214-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Matthijs Nescio <matthijs_1971 <at> hotmail.com>
Cc: 23214-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#23214: Possible bug in sort -g
Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2016 08:54:02 -0700

On 04/04/2016 08:31 AM, Matthijs Nescio wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Indeed, setting the environment variable LC_ALL to C solves the 
> problem. Thank you. I am a satisfied long-time user of sort so I was 
> flabbergasted.

Yes, the locale can affect 'sort' in funny ways. Thanks for following 
up. Closing the bug report.

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