Subject: sort -urn losing data
To: None <tech-userlevel@netbsd.org>
From: Jeremy C. Reed <reed@reedmedia.net>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 01/19/2006 15:04:56
"sort -urn" loses data versus "sort -rn | sort -u".
I don't know if this is a misunderstanding or misuse of options
or if this is a bug.
Using this data:
1 callrpc
1 tzset
1 callrpc
sort -rnu will return:
1 callrpc
And using this data:
1 tzset
1 callrpc
1 callrpc
sort -rnu will return:
1 tzset
Both examples above (I believe) have wrong output.
After several other tests, it appears that the -n in addition to -u makes
it lose data.
Or is this correct behaviour?
My workaround for now is to pipe the sort -u output into another sort -rn.
I noticed this when I merged a few files and I lost numerous entries.
Jeremy C. Reed
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