From 915dacbb85920ec58dd0331fbc88aacc92472a42 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Jim Meyering Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 08:40:54 +0000 Subject: New "sort" option -S SIZE. --- doc/textutils.texi | 18 ++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 18 insertions(+) diff --git a/doc/textutils.texi b/doc/textutils.texi index f9baa9b32..5713a4a7f 100644 --- a/doc/textutils.texi +++ b/doc/textutils.texi @@ -2260,6 +2260,24 @@ If @var{output-file} is one of the input files, @code{sort} copies it to a temporary file before sorting and writing the output to @var{output-file}. +@item -S @var{size} +@opindex -S +@cindex size for main memory sorting +Use a main-memory sort buffer of the given @var{size}. By default, +@var{size} is in units of 1,024 bytes. Appending @samp{%} causes +@var{size} to be interpreted as a percentage of physical memory. +Appending @samp{k} multiplies @var{size} by 1,024 (the default), +@samp{M} by 1,048,576, @samp{G} by 1,073,741,824, and so on for +@samp{T}, @samp{P}, @samp{E}, @samp{Z}, and @samp{Y}. Appending +@samp{b} causes @var{size} to be interpreted as a byte count, with no +multiplication. + +This option can improve the performance of @command{sort} by causing it +to start with a larger or smaller sort buffer than the default. +However, this option affects only the initial buffer size. The buffer +grows beyond @var{size} if @command{sort} encounters input lines larger +than @var{size}. + @item -t @var{separator} @opindex -t @cindex field separator character -- cgit v1.2.3-70-g09d2