MKSORT(8)

NAME
mksort - sort the standard input, allowing arbitrarily long lines

SYNOPSIS
/usr/lib/smail/mksort [ -f ] [ file ... ]

DESCRIPTION
Mksort takes lines as input, sorts them by the first field and writes them to the standard output. The first field is delimited by whitespace or by the colon character (:). The lines can be of any length, as long as the entire input can be stored in memory. With -f the sort is performed independent of case, so that the letter ``A'' compares equal to the letter ``a'' and ``a'' is always less than ``B.''

If no input files are specified, the standard input is read. In addition, if a filename of - is given, the standard input is inserted at that point.

The mksort program can be used in combination with mkline(8) to produce sorted files containing arbitrarily large aliases or paths which can then be read by a smail(8) pathalias router or aliasfile director. The router or director should be configured to use the bsearch file access protocol. See smail(5) for more information on routers and directors.

EXAMPLE
As an example of the use of mksort with mkline consider a file, aliases, containing the following aliasing information:

    Postmaster:	hustead		# Ted Hustead, jr.
    UUCP-Postmasters:	tron, chongo	# namei contacts
    	yamato	# kremvax contact
    tron:	tron@namei.uucp (Ronald S. Karr)
    yamato:	yamato@kremvax.ussr.comm (Yamato T. Yankelovich)
    chongo:	chongo@eek.uts.amdahl.com (Landon Curt Noll)

Given this file, the command mkline aliases | mksort -f will yield:

    chongo:chongo@eek.uts.amdahl.com
    Postmaster:hustead
    tron:tron@namei.uucp
    UUCP-Postmasters:tron,chongo yamato
    yamato:yamato@kremvax.ussr.comm

SEE ALSO
mkline(8), mkdbm(8), smail(5), smail(8), pathalias(8).

COPYRIGHT
Copyright(C)1987, 1988 Ronald S. Karr and Landon Curt Noll
Copyright(C)1992 Ronald S. Karr
See a file COPYING, distributed with the source code, or type smail -bc for distribution rights and restrictions associated with this software.