GNU bug report logs - #28539
different outputs of sort

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

From: "He, Yihan" <yihan.he <at> intel.com>
To: "bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org" <bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org>
Cc: "Ji, Zhenlong Z" <zhenlong.z.ji <at> intel.com>, "Wang,
 Tao W" <tao.w.wang <at> intel.com>
Subject: different outputs of sort 
Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2017 06:56:53 +0000

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

Hi,

We are facing issue when using sort, could you please help us to understand why? Thanks a lot.

We run below command on two servers, but got different outputs. I attached source file (property_contexts) and two outputs files(sort_property_context_local.txt & sort_property_context_slave.txt).
$sort -u property_contexts -o sort_property_context.txt

As checked, we use same version of sort on that two servers:
local:~ $sort --version
sort (GNU coreutils) 8.21
Copyright (C) 2013 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.
--------------------------------------------------------
slave:~ $sort --version
sort (GNU coreutils) 8.21
Copyright (C) 2013 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.


Best Regards

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[sort_property_context_slave.txt (text/plain, attachment)]

[sort_property_context_local.txt (text/plain, attachment)]

[property_contexts (application/octet-stream, attachment)]

Message #12 received at 28539-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
To: "He, Yihan" <yihan.he <at> intel.com>, 28539-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Cc: "Ji, Zhenlong Z" <zhenlong.z.ji <at> intel.com>, "Wang,
 Tao W" <tao.w.wang <at> intel.com>
Subject: Re: bug#28539: different outputs of sort
Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2017 10:36:12 -0500

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tag 28539 notabug
thanks

On 09/21/2017 01:56 AM, He, Yihan wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> We are facing issue when using sort, could you please help us to understand why? Thanks a lot.

Thanks for your report.  However, I suspect that the difference you are
seeing is the result of a FAQ:
https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/faq/coreutils-faq.html#Sort-does-not-sort-in-normal-order_0021
namely, that you have different locale settings between your two machines.

> 
> We run below command on two servers, but got different outputs. I attached source file (property_contexts) and two outputs files(sort_property_context_local.txt & sort_property_context_slave.txt).
> $sort -u property_contexts -o sort_property_context.txt
> 
> As checked, we use same version of sort on that two servers:
> local:~ $sort --version
> sort (GNU coreutils) 8.21

Note that this version of sort includes 'sort --debug', which is useful
in diagnosing issues like this.

Here's a trimmed-down example that produces similar behavior for me,
with the locale being explicit:

$ printf 'a\n# b\nc\n' | LC_ALL=C sort --debug
sort: using simple byte comparison
# b
___
a
_
c
_

$ printf 'a\n# b\nc\n' | LC_ALL=en_US.utf8 sort --debug
sort: using ‘en_US.utf8’ sorting rules
a
_
# b
___
c
_


That is, in the en_US.utf8 locale, the locale instructs sort to ignore
punctuation and sort case-insensitively, whereas the C locale sorts by
strict byte order.

As such, I'm tagging this issue as not a bug, but feel free to follow up
with further information, including any evidence you might have that
there is a real bug once locales have been accounted for.

-- 
Eric Blake, Principal Software Engineer
Red Hat, Inc.           +1-919-301-3266
Virtualization:  qemu.org | libvirt.org

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