From: Jim Meyering <jim@meyering.net>
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2003 15:55:55 +0000 (+0000)
Subject: (sort invocation): Describe sort's --stable (-s) option.
X-Git-Tag: v4.5.12~24
X-Git-Url: http://git.ipfire.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=bfaee25d1f20412a646250a10870b51d238d2054;p=thirdparty%2Fcoreutils.git

(sort invocation): Describe sort's --stable (-s) option.
---

diff --git a/doc/coreutils.texi b/doc/coreutils.texi
index 43499b1f1d..9cecd2c482 100644
--- a/doc/coreutils.texi
+++ b/doc/coreutils.texi
@@ -3028,6 +3028,24 @@ On newer systems, @option{-o} cannot appear after an input file if
 scripts should specify @option{-o @var{output-file}} before any input
 files.
 
+@item -s
+@itemx --stable
+@opindex -s
+@opindex --stable
+@cindex sort stability
+@cindex disabling sort's last-resort comparison
+
+Make @command{sort} stable by disabling the last-resort
+comparison that is performed in some cases.
+By default, when lines compare equal based on command line options
+that affect ordering, those lines are ordered using
+a @dfn{last-resort comparison} that takes the entire
+line as the key and acts as if no ordering options were specified.
+But if @option{--reverse} (@option{-r}) was specified along with other
+ordering options, then the last-resort comparison does use @option{--reverse}.
+In any case, when no ordering option is specified or when only
+@option{--reverse} is specified, the last-resort comparison is not performed
+
 @item -S @var{size}
 @itemx --buffer-size=@var{size}
 @opindex -S