Sort lines of text files.
# To sort a file in ascending order:
sort path/to/file
# To sort a file in descending order:
sort --reverse path/to/file
# To sort a file in case-insensitive way:
sort --ignore-case path/to/file
# To sort a file using numeric rather than alphabetic order:
sort --numeric-sort path/to/file
# To sort '/etc/passwd' by the 3rd field of each line numerically, using ":" as a field separator:
sort --field-separator=: --key=3n /etc/passwd
# To sort a file preserving only unique lines:
sort --unique path/to/file
# To sort a file, printing the output to the specified output file (can be used to sort a file in-place):
sort --output=path/to/file path/to/file
# To sort numbers with exponents:
sort --general-numeric-sort path/to/file