diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/coreutils.texi | 7 |
1 files changed, 5 insertions, 2 deletions
diff --git a/doc/coreutils.texi b/doc/coreutils.texi index 01791be5b..a07e46ef1 100644 --- a/doc/coreutils.texi +++ b/doc/coreutils.texi @@ -4384,9 +4384,12 @@ silently uses a smaller value. @cindex overwriting of input, allowed Write output to @var{output-file} instead of standard output. Normally, @command{sort} reads all input before opening -@var{output-file}, so you can safely sort a file in place by using +@var{output-file}, so you can sort a file in place by using commands like @code{sort -o F F} and @code{cat F | sort -o F}@. -However, @command{sort} with @option{--merge} (@option{-m}) can open +However, it is often safer to output to an otherwise-unused file, as +data may be lost if the system crashes or @command{sort} encounters +an I/O or other serious error while a file is being sorted in place. +Also, @command{sort} with @option{--merge} (@option{-m}) can open the output file before reading all input, so a command like @code{cat F | sort -m -o F - G} is not safe as @command{sort} might start writing @file{F} before @command{cat} is done reading it. |