GNU bug report logs - #33786
doc: sort: document Debian's version-sort algorithm

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Message #20 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: L A Walsh <coreutils <at> tlinx.org>
To: Assaf Gordon <assafgordon <at> gmail.com>
Cc: Coreutils <bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org>
Subject: Re: bug#33786: Bug: undocumented feature (algorithm) for version-sort
 (include on manpage)
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2018 00:13:34 -0800

I wouldn't consider debian to be a standards organization.

Perhaps they should get their version sort adopted by POSIX?

But having algorithms that read:

use ascii sort for this field if after a character in this list [].
but use numeric sort for this field if after this list [].
but use an indeterminant sort if the field has unicode characters...

would hardly seem likely if it was a publish standard.

In the test cases I used, subsequent fields' sort methods
were determined by previous fields with a non-obvious
behavior. 

That it is well documented on the net 'somewhere', is 
part of the problem -- on a console, there was no
web browser nor internet access.

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