Info Catalog coreutils: Version sort overview coreutils: Origin of version sort and differences from 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 ‘-v’ or
 ‘--sort=version’ options:
 
      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’
 option:
 
      $ cat input
      b3
      b11
      b1
      b20
 
 
      alphabetical order:        version sort order:
 
      $ sort input               $ sort -V input
      b1                         b1
      b11                        b3
      b20                        b11
      b3                         b20
 
    To sort a specific column in a file use ‘-k/--key’ with ‘V’ ordering
 option:
 
      $ cat input2
      1000  b3   apples
      2000  b11  oranges
      3000  b1   potatoes
      4000  b20  bananas
 
      $ sort -k2V,2 input2
      3000  b1   potatoes
      1000  b3   apples
      2000  b11  oranges
      4000  b20  bananas
 

Info Catalog coreutils: Version sort overview coreutils: Origin of version sort and differences from natural sort