Windows Linux Text Processing

Windows `sort` equivalent in Linux

Sorts the lines of a text file or input alphabetically, numerically, or by other criteria.

Windows sort

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Linux equivalents

Debian/Ubuntu same command

sort

Fedora same command

sort

Arch same command

sort

Overview

What this command does

Sorts the lines of a text file or input alphabetically, numerically, or by other criteria.

Migration tip: Linux sort is much more powerful than Windows. Combine with uniq to remove duplicate lines.

Practical tasks

Common use cases

Sort lines of text

Sorts the lines of a text file or input alphabetically, numerically, or by other criteria.

sort -r

Reverse order (Z to A)

sort -n

Numeric sort (10 comes after 9)

sort -u

Sort and remove duplicates

Ready to run

Copyable Linux commands

Review paths, device names, package names and permissions before running any command.

sort file.txt

sort -r file.txt

sort -n numbers.txt

sort -u file.txt

cat names.txt | sort | uniq

ls -la | sort -k 5 -n

Walkthrough

Examples with explanations

# Windows: sort file.txt
sort file.txt                  # alphabetical sort
sort -r file.txt              # reverse order
sort -n numbers.txt           # numeric sort
sort -u file.txt              # sort + remove duplicates

# Sort and pipe:
cat names.txt | sort | uniq  # unique sorted names
ls -la | sort -k 5 -n        # sort dir listing by file size

Reference

Common options and variations

Command or option	Use
`sort -r`	Reverse order (Z to A)
`sort -n`	Numeric sort (10 comes after 9)
`sort -u`	Sort and remove duplicates
`sort -k 2`	Sort by second column/field
`sort -t ',' -k 2`	Sort CSV by second column

Distro differences

Debian/Ubuntu vs Fedora vs Arch

This command is the same on Debian/Ubuntu, Fedora and Arch Linux when the relevant tool is installed.

Distribution	Package manager / base	Equivalent command	Difference to notice
Debian/Ubuntu	same command	`sort`	Same command on this distribution.
Fedora	same command	`sort`	Same command on this distribution.
Arch	same command	`sort`	Same command on this distribution.

Keep learning

What this command does

Common use cases

Sort lines of text

sort -r

sort -n

sort -u

Copyable Linux commands

Examples with explanations

Common options and variations

Debian/Ubuntu vs Fedora vs Arch

Related Text Processing commands