GNU bug report logs - #9281
Is this expected behavior?

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

From: Ajesh Shaj <ajesh <at> yahoo-inc.com>
To: "bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org" <bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org>
Subject: Is this expected behavior?
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2011 12:01:38 +0530

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

Hi,

    I got a strange ordering when I applied the linux sort command. Please see below for the details:

[ajesh <at> gwta3004 tmp]$ cat a
.a
ba
.b
bb
.c
bc
[ajesh <at> gwta3004 tmp]$ sort a
.a
.b
ba
bb
bc
.c


NOTE: .a and .b appears before ba and bb, where as .c appears after bc.

In general

if the file has strings of the type .<x> and <y><x>,

then for all x <= y, .x appear before yx and
          for all x>y, .x appear after yx

Is this expected behavior?

Regards
Ajesh

--

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

Message #10 received at 9281-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
To: Ajesh Shaj <ajesh <at> yahoo-inc.com>
Cc: 9281-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#9281: Is this expected behavior?
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2011 06:04:48 -0600

tag 9281 notabug
thanks

On 08/11/2011 12:31 AM, Ajesh Shaj wrote:
> Hi,
>
>      I got a strange ordering when I applied the linux sort command. Please see below for the details:
>
> [ajesh <at> gwta3004 tmp]$ sort a
> .a
> .b
> ba
> bb
> bc
> .c
>
>
> NOTE: .a and .b appears before ba and bb, where as .c appears after bc.

> Is this expected behavior?

Yep.  And this is a FAQ, caused by you using a locale that ignores 
punctuation when determining sort order.

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

If you are using new enough coreutils, try:

sort --debug a

for better understanding what is happening, then compare to:

LC_ALL=C sort --debug a

(if your sort doesn't understand --debug, then it is still useful to try 
LC_ALL=C sort a).

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

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