@vindex LC_CTYPE
Ignore nonprinting characters.
The @env{LC_CTYPE} locale determines character types.
+This option has no effect if the stronger @option{--dictionary-order}
+(@option{-d}) option is also given.
@item -M
@itemx --month-sort
@opindex --month-sort
@cindex months, sorting by
@vindex LC_TIME
-An initial string, consisting of any amount of whitespace, followed
+An initial string, consisting of any amount of blanks, followed
by a month name abbreviation, is folded to UPPER case and
compared in the order @samp{JAN} < @samp{FEB} < @dots{} < @samp{DEC}.
Invalid names compare low to valid names. The @env{LC_TIME} locale
@cindex numeric sort
@vindex LC_NUMERIC
Sort numerically: the number begins each line; specifically, it consists
-of optional whitespace, an optional @samp{-} sign, and zero or more
+of optional blanks, an optional @samp{-} sign, and zero or more
digits possibly separated by thousands separators, optionally followed
by a decimal-point character and zero or more digits. The @env{LC_NUMERIC}
locale specifies the decimal-point character and thousands separator.
@cindex field separator character
Use character @var{separator} as the field separator when finding the
sort keys in each line. By default, fields are separated by the empty
-string between a non-whitespace character and a whitespace character.
+string between a non-blank character and a blank character.
That is, given the input line @w{@samp{ foo bar}}, @command{sort} breaks it
into fields @w{@samp{ foo}} and @w{@samp{ bar}}. The field separator is
not considered to be part of either the field preceding or the field
as @option{-k 2}, or sort fields consisting of a range, as @option{-k 2,3},
retain the field separators present between the endpoints of the range.
+To specify a zero byte (@acronym{ASCII} @sc{nul} (Null) character) as
+the field separator, use the two-character string @samp{\0}, e.g.,
+@samp{sort -t '\0'}.
+
@item -T @var{tempdir}
@itemx --temporary-directory=@var{tempdir}
@opindex -T
@item
Sort the password file on the fifth field and ignore any
-leading white space. Sort lines with equal values in field five
+leading blanks. Sort lines with equal values in field five
on the numeric user ID in field three.
@example
that pathnames that contain Line Feed characters will not get broken up
by the sort operation.
-Finally, to ignore both leading and trailing white space, you
+Finally, to ignore both leading and trailing blanks, you
could have applied the @samp{b} modifier to the field-end specifier
for the first key,