GNU bug report logs - #7525
bug in sort command

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

From: "Kielbasiewicz, Peter" <peter.kielbasiewicz <at> philips.com>
To: "bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org" <bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org>
Subject: bug in sort command
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2010 14:44:42 +0100

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

Hello,
there seems to be a bug in Ubuntu's 10.10  sort command.
I suspect that it defaults to the  -f option  now which I think is wrong.
e.g.
{  echo a
   echo j
   echo A
   echo i
   echo AA
   echo B
} | sort

produces
a
A
AA
B
i
j

instead of
A
AA
B
a
i
j
--
With kind regards,

Peter


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Message #8 received at 7525 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
To: "Kielbasiewicz, Peter" <peter.kielbasiewicz <at> philips.com>
Cc: 7525 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#7525: bug in sort command
Date: Wed, 01 Dec 2010 08:14:52 -0700

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

On 12/01/2010 06:44 AM, Kielbasiewicz, Peter wrote:
> Hello,
> there seems to be a bug in Ubuntu's 10.10  sort command.
> I suspect that it defaults to the  -f option  now which I think is wrong.

Thanks for the report.  However, this is not a bug in sort, but a
problem of your current choice of locale.  It is also a FAQ:

http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/faq/#Sort-does-not-sort-in-normal-order_0021

> e.g.
> {  echo a
>    echo j
>    echo A
>    echo i
>    echo AA
>    echo B
> } | sort

Running with the recently introduced 'sort --debug' option sheds some
light on your situation:

$ printf 'a\nj\nA\ni\nAA\nB\n' | src/sort --debug
src/sort: using `en_US.UTF-8' sorting rules
a
_
A
_
AA
__
B
_
i
_
j
_

eblake <at> office (0 0) ~/coreutils
$ printf 'a\nj\nA\ni\nAA\nB\n' | LC_ALL=C src/sort --debug
src/sort: using simple byte comparison
A
_
AA
__
B
_
a
_
i
_
j
_


-- 
Eric Blake   eblake <at> redhat.com    +1-801-349-2682
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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Message #13 received at 7525-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: "Kielbasiewicz, Peter" <peter.kielbasiewicz <at> philips.com>
Cc: 7525-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#7525: bug in sort command
Date: Wed, 01 Dec 2010 08:53:40 -0800

"sort --help" says:

  *** WARNING ***
  The locale specified by the environment affects sort order.
  Set LC_ALL=C to get the traditional sort order that uses
  native byte values.

and this most likely explains your situation.

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