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Diffstat (limited to 'doc')
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/coreutils.texi | 55 |
1 files changed, 32 insertions, 23 deletions
diff --git a/doc/coreutils.texi b/doc/coreutils.texi index 3721beea4..e097c257d 100644 --- a/doc/coreutils.texi +++ b/doc/coreutils.texi @@ -3862,10 +3862,9 @@ To compare such strings numerically, use the @opindex -V @opindex --version-sort @cindex version number sort -@vindex LC_NUMERIC -Sort per @code{strverscmp(3)}. This is a normal string comparison, except -that embedded decimal numbers are sorted by numeric value -(see @option{--numeric-sort} above). +Sort by version name and number. It behaves like a standard sort, +except that each sequence of decimal digits is treated numerically +as an index/version number. (@xref{Details about version sort}.) @item -r @itemx --reverse @@ -6685,23 +6684,17 @@ after the last @samp{.}); files with no extension are sorted first. @node Details about version sort @subsection Details about version sort -The version sort takes into account the fact that file names frequently include -indices or version numbers. Standard sorting functions usually do not produce -the ordering that people expect because comparisons are made on a -character-by-character basis. The version -sort addresses this problem, and is especially useful when browsing -directories that contain many files with indices/version numbers in their -names: +Version sorting handles the fact that file names frequently include indices or +version numbers. Standard sorting usually does not produce the order that one +expects because comparisons are made on a character-by-character basis. +Version sorting is especially useful when browsing directories that contain +many files with indices/version numbers in their names: @example $ ls -1 $ ls -1v -foo.zml-1.gz foo.zml-1.gz -foo.zml-100.gz foo.zml-2.gz -foo.zml-12.gz foo.zml-6.gz -foo.zml-13.gz foo.zml-12.gz -foo.zml-2.gz foo.zml-13.gz -foo.zml-25.gz foo.zml-25.gz -foo.zml-6.gz foo.zml-100.gz +abc.zml-1.gz abc.zml-1.gz +abc.zml-12.gz abc.zml-2.gz +abc.zml-2.gz abc.zml-12.gz @end example Version-sorted strings are compared such that if @var{ver1} and @var{ver2} @@ -6720,11 +6713,27 @@ abc-1.012b.tgz abc-1.007.tgz abc-1.01a.tgz abc-1.012b.tgz @end example -This functionality is implemented using gnulib's @code{filevercmp} function. -One result of that implementation decision is that @samp{ls -v} -and @samp{sort -V} do not use the locale category, @env{LC_COLLATE}, -which means non-numeric prefixes are sorted as if @env{LC_COLLATE} were set -to @samp{C}. +This functionality is implemented using gnulib's @code{filevercmp} function, +which has some caveats worth noting. + +@itemize @bullet +@item @env{LC_COLLATE} is ignored, which means @samp{ls -v} and @samp{sort -V} +will sort non-numeric prefixes as if the @env{LC_COLLATE} locale category +was set to @samp{C}. +@item Some suffixes will not be matched by the regular +expression mentioned above. Consequently these examples may +not sort as you expect: + +@example +abc-1.2.3.4.7z +abc-1.2.3.7z +@end example + +@example +abc-1.2.3.4.x86_64.rpm +abc-1.2.3.x86_64.rpm +@end example +@end itemize @node General output formatting @subsection General output formatting |