OOPS! Sorry, I didn't read your query carefully enough and proceeded on the basis that the "cmd" numers were 4-figure. You will need to extract what follows "cmd" as a separate field. The following mix of awk, sed and sort works (the source file is called "temp.txt" here, and I have added a 3-figure "cmd" entry):

$cat temp.txt 20110905-000107 803 cmd1853 - Host:/127.0.0.1 opened command interface from port: 54365 20110905-000108 761 cmd1854 - Command: 20110905-000108 766 cmd1853 - Response: 201 Service ready 20110905-000108 766 cmd1854 - Response: 201 Service ready 20110905-000108 803 cmd1854 - Host:/127.0.0.1 opened command interface from port: 57052 20110905-000108 804 cmd1853 - Host:/127.0.0.1 closed command interface from port: 54365 20110905-000113 804 cmd1854 - Host:/127.0.0.1 closed command interface from port: 57052 20110905-000313 761 cmd1858 - Command: 20110905-000313 761 cmd858 - Command: 20110905-000313 766 cmd1856 - Response: 201 Service ready 20110905-000313 766 cmd1858 - Response: 201 Service ready

cat temp.txt | awk '{print $3 " " $0}' | sed 's/^cmd//' | sort -n | awk '{$1=""};{print $0}' | sed 's/^ //'

20110905-000313 761 cmd858 - Command: 20110905-000107 803 cmd1853 - Host:/127.0.0.1 opened command interface from port: 54365 20110905-000108 766 cmd1853 - Response: 201 Service ready 20110905-000108 804 cmd1853 - Host:/127.0.0.1 closed command interface from port: 54365 20110905-000108 761 cmd1854 - Command: 20110905-000108 766 cmd1854 - Response: 201 Service ready 20110905-000108 803 cmd1854 - Host:/127.0.0.1 opened command interface from port: 57052 20110905-000113 804 cmd1854 - Host:/127.0.0.1 closed command interface from port: 57052 20110905-000313 766 cmd1856 - Response: 201 Service ready 20110905-000313 761 cmd1858 - Command: 20110905-000313 766 cmd1858 - Response: 201 Service ready

Sorry for the previous error! Ted.

On 06-Sep-11 12:58:40, Ted Harding wrote:

On 06-Sep-11 12:35:57, Mark Rogers wrote:

...

I have a log file which looks like this: 20110905-000107 803 cmd1853 - Host:/127.0.0.1 opened command interface from port: 54365 20110905-000108 761 cmd1854 - Command: 20110905-000108 766 cmd1853 - Response: 201 Service ready 20110905-000108 766 cmd1854 - Response: 201 Service ready 20110905-000108 803 cmd1854 - Host:/127.0.0.1 opened command interface from port: 57052 20110905-000108 804 cmd1853 - Host:/127.0.0.1 closed command interface from port: 54365 20110905-000113 804 cmd1854 - Host:/127.0.0.1 closed command interface from port: 57052 20110905-000313 761 cmd1858 - Command: 20110905-000313 766 cmd1856 - Response: 201 Service ready 20110905-000313 766 cmd1858 - Response: 201 Service ready

I want to sort it in numeric order on the cmd value. Note that the cmd number isn't always 4 digits and I want cmd9 to appear before cmd10, etc.

Can I do this with sort?

I've seen examples that suggest that something along the lines of sort -n -k3.4 .. would do it but I can't get it working in any of the various permutations I've tried.

-- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

sort -n -k 3.4,3.7

does it -- see man sort and the definition of -k POS1[,POS2] and the explanation of POS at the bottom of the man page.

I think your "sort -n -k3.4" only sorts on the first digit!

Ted.

---

E-Mail: (Ted Harding) ted.harding@wlandres.net Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 06-Sep-11 Time: 13:58:37 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

---

main@lists.alug.org.uk http://www.alug.org.uk/ http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above!

-------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) ted.harding@wlandres.net Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 06-Sep-11 Time: 14:14:28 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

On 06-Sep-11 16:06:56, Mark Rogers wrote:

On 06/09/11 16:54, nev young wrote:

...

sort --key=3.4 -b -n

Perfect, thanks!

-- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450

Interesting! The key (pun intended) to the problem lies in the separator. Nev's "-b" (accpording to 'man sort') has the effect that:

-b, --ignore-leading-blanks ignore leading blanks

and the separator option:

-t, --field-separator=SEP use SEP instead of non-blank to blank transition

So, in your typical input line:

20110905-000108 761 cmd1854 - Command:

the default separator occurs at the places indicated below by "|":

20110905-000108| 761| cmd1854| -| Command:

and the blanks after each "|" are part of the following field. so that the 3rd field is " cmd1854". Hence the start of the numeric part is at position 5, not position 4. The leading " " in each field is eliminated by "-b".

Test (using my test file with an extra 3-digit line):

sort --key=3.5 -n < temp.txt ` 20110905-000313 761 cmd858 - Command: 20110905-000107 803 cmd1853 - Host:/127.0.0.1 opened command interface from port: 54365 20110905-000108 766 cmd1853 - Response: 201 Service ready 20110905-000108 804 cmd1853 - Host:/127.0.0.1 closed command interface from port: 54365 20110905-000108 761 cmd1854 - Command: 20110905-000108 766 cmd1854 - Response: 201 Service ready 20110905-000108 803 cmd1854 - Host:/127.0.0.1 opened command interface from port: 57052 20110905-000113 804 cmd1854 - Host:/127.0.0.1 closed command interface from port: 57052 20110905-000313 766 cmd1856 - Response: 201 Service ready 20110905-000313 761 cmd1858 - Command: 20110905-000313 766 cmd1858 - Response: 201 Service ready

which is perfect, and also explains why your "-k3.4" did not work!

Well well well!

Another way to do it, of course, would be

sort -t " " --key=3.4 -n < temp.txt

Ted.

-------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) ted.harding@wlandres.net Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 06-Sep-11 Time: 18:58:37 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------