bash sort list of strings by number at the end

Question

I have a list of files with a version number at the end that I need to sort

/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/7
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/10
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/12
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/13
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/6
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/8
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/9

when I pipe it through grep it sort like so:

echo $files | sort -n
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/10
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/12
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/13
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/6
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/7
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/8
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/9

I think the -n is getting confused by the first number in the file name.

How can I sort it numerically by the last number

Always the same depth of path?

Kevin
– Kevin

2013-06-05 16:28:15 +00:00
Commented Jun 5, 2013 at 16:28 — Kevin
– Kevin, Commented Jun 5, 2013 at 16:28
yes, but I don't know the depth until I am trying to sort

Sam Brinck
– Sam Brinck

2013-06-05 16:32:02 +00:00
Commented Jun 5, 2013 at 16:32 — Sam Brinck
– Sam Brinck, Commented Jun 5, 2013 at 16:32

Nitin4873 · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-05 18:10:49Z

25

Kaizen ~/so_test $ cat ztestfile1 | sort -t'/' -n -k10
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/6
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/7
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/8
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/9
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/10
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/12
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/13

does this help ?

alternative way ie to be independent from the position .....

 Kaizen ~/so_test  $ cat ztestfile1 | sort -V
 /this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/6
 /this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/7
 /this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/8
 /this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/9
 /this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/10
 /this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/12
 /this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/13

please note its a -V (Capital) option in sort that looks into numeric differences in a string to sort ..... like in version number .

man page text ::

   -V, --version-sort
          natural sort of (version) numbers within text

edited Jun 5, 2013 at 18:10

answered Jun 5, 2013 at 16:32

Nitin4873

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5 Comments

Sam Brinck Over a year ago

this is what I had been trying except that I was going by the man page and had extra spaces sort -n -t '/' -k 10 and apparently sort doesn't like that

Nitin4873 Over a year ago

ohh ok , seems the issue is sorted now ... :)

michas Over a year ago

Be aware that with this kind of solution you have to know and specify the depth of the files.

Sam Brinck Over a year ago

@michas I am passing the string through tr '/' ' ' | wc -w to determine the depth, it feels there should be a better way, but it works

The Schwartz Over a year ago

Me too, The -V, this gives a true sorting when it comes to numbers, the others option groups the lines base on the number of digits in the numbers, which in my book is a faulty sorting :-)

michas · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-05 16:31:14Z

6

You can use / as a column separator:

sort -n -t/ -k 10

answered Jun 5, 2013 at 16:31

michas

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Comments

iruvar · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-05 16:32:42Z

Use awk to bring the last field to the front, sort by the 1st field, then apply cut to get rid of the first field. An example using a here document below

awk -F'/' '{print($NF"/"$0)}' <<! | sort -k1n,1n -t'/' | cut -f2- -d'/'
> /this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/7
> /this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/10
> /this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/12
> /this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/13
> /this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/6
> /this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/8
> /this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/9
> !
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/6
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/7
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/8
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/9
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/10
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/12
/this/is/a/file/path/product-2.0/file/name/13

michas · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-05 16:52:19Z

0

Or use a one-liner something like perl or ruby:

ruby -we 'print *readlines.sort_by{|x| File.basename(x).to_i}'

answered Jun 5, 2013 at 16:52

michas

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Comments

kgraney · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-05 16:33:42Z

-1

This gets you sorted by the last item in the path by using / as the field separator, taking the last value and placing it at the start of the line, sorting, then removing the value from the start of the line.

cat data | awk 'BEGIN { FS="/"} { print $(NF) " " $0 }' | sort -n | sed 's/^.*\s//g'

answered Jun 5, 2013 at 16:33

kgraney

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