Info Catalog coreutils: Version sort overview coreutils: Version sort and natural sort

coreutils: Using version sort in GNU Coreutils

 
 30.1.1 Using version sort in GNU Coreutils
 ------------------------------------------
 
 Two GNU Coreutils programs use version sort: ‘ls’ and ‘sort’.
 
    To list files in version sort order, use ‘ls’ with the ‘-v’ or
 ‘--sort=version’ option:
 
      default sort:              version sort:
 
      $ ls -1                    $ ls -1 -v
      a1                         a1
      a100                       a1.4
      a1.13                      a1.13
      a1.4                       a1.40
      a1.40                      a2
      a2                         a100
 
    To sort text files in version sort order, use ‘sort’ with the ‘-V’ or
 ‘--version-sort’ option:
 
      $ cat input
      b3
      b11
      b1
      b20
 
 
      lexicographic order:       version sort order:
 
      $ sort input               $ sort -V input
      b1                         b1
      b11                        b3
      b20                        b11
      b3                         b20
 
    To sort a specific field in a file, use ‘-k/--key’ with ‘V’ type
 sorting, which is often combined with ‘b’ to ignore leading blanks in
 the field:
 
      $ cat input2
      100   b3   apples
      2000  b11  oranges
      3000  b1   potatoes
      4000  b20  bananas
      $ sort -k 2bV,2 input2
      3000  b1   potatoes
      100   b3   apples
      2000  b11  oranges
      4000  b20  bananas
 

Info Catalog coreutils: Version sort overview coreutils: Version sort and natural sort