(sort invocation): Clarify that by default a blank is a space or a tab.

1 files changed, 11 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/doc/coreutils.texi b/doc/coreutils.texi
index bc346c78c..f58af8b61 100644
--- a/doc/coreutils.texi
+++ b/doc/coreutils.texi
@@ -3278,7 +3278,8 @@ so portable shell scripts should specify global options first.
 @cindex blanks, ignoring leading
 @vindex LC_CTYPE
 Ignore leading blanks when finding sort keys in each line.
-The @env{LC_CTYPE} locale determines character types.
+By default a blank is a space or a tab, but the @env{LC_CTYPE} locale
+can change this.
 
 @item -d
 @itemx --dictionary-order
@@ -3290,7 +3291,8 @@ The @env{LC_CTYPE} locale determines character types.
 @vindex LC_CTYPE
 Sort in @dfn{phone directory} order: ignore all characters except
 letters, digits and blanks when sorting.
-The @env{LC_CTYPE} locale determines character types.
+By default letters and digits are those of @acronym{ASCII} and a blank
+is a space or a tab, but the @env{LC_CTYPE} locale can change this.
 
 @item -f
 @itemx --ignore-case
@@ -3358,6 +3360,8 @@ by a month name abbreviation, is folded to UPPER case and
 compared in the order @samp{JAN} < @samp{FEB} < @dots{} < @samp{DEC}.
 Invalid names compare low to valid names.  The @env{LC_TIME} locale
 category determines the month spellings.
+By default a blank is a space or a tab, but the @env{LC_CTYPE} locale
+can change this.
 
 @item -n
 @itemx --numeric-sort
@@ -3371,6 +3375,8 @@ digits possibly separated by thousands separators, optionally followed
 by a decimal-point character and zero or more digits.  A string of
 no digits is interpreted as @samp{0}.  The @env{LC_NUMERIC}
 locale specifies the decimal-point character and thousands separator.
+By default a blank is a space or a tab, but the @env{LC_CTYPE} locale
+can change this.
 
 Numeric sort uses what might be considered an unconventional method to
 compare strings representing floating point numbers.  Rather than first
@@ -3482,6 +3488,9 @@ than @var{size}.
 Use character @var{separator} as the field separator when finding the
 sort keys in each line.  By default, fields are separated by the empty
 string between a non-blank character and a blank character.
+By default a blank is a space or a tab, but the @env{LC_CTYPE} locale
+can change this.
+
 That is, given the input line @w{@samp{ foo bar}}, @command{sort} breaks it
 into fields @w{@samp{ foo}} and @w{@samp{ bar}}.  The field separator is
 not considered to be part of either the field preceding or the field