How to sort files in a folder using bash?

Question

I have these files in a folder:

chap11-solutions.pdf
chap12-solutions.pdf
chap13-solutions.pdf
chap14-solutions.pdf
chap15-solutions.pdf
chap16-solutions.pdf
chap17-solutions.pdf
chap21-solutions.pdf
chap22-solutions.pdf
chap23-solutions.pdf
chap24-solutions.pdf
chap25-solutions.pdf
chap26-solutions.pdf
chap2-solutions.pdf
chap3-solutions.pdf
chap4-solutions.pdf
chap5-solutions.pdf
chap6-solutions.pdf
chap7-solutions.pdf
chap8-solutions.pdf
chap9-solutions.pdf

how do I sort them in this way: chap1..., chap...2, ...., chap11..., chap12,... using Ubuntu bash shell? Thanks.

Arnaud Le Blanc · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-23 13:09:12Z

25

ls|sort -V

The -V parameter ensures that chap10 is considered upper that chap9.

answered Jan 23, 2011 at 13:09

Arnaud Le Blanc

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2 Comments

Tomasz Elendt Over a year ago

Just be aware that the -V option works only for relatively new GNU coreutils - it doesn't work for 5.93 (the one that's shipped by default with Mac OS 10.6).

Arnaud Le Blanc Over a year ago

OP uses Ubuntu, so he likely have a recent GNU coreutils :)

Dennis Williamson · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-23 15:15:41Z

9

GNU ls has a version sort built-in:

ls -lv

answered Jan 23, 2011 at 15:15

Dennis Williamson

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1 Comment

wakandan Over a year ago

thanks for this new very useful info, I never know this old tool got that handful switch. :D

kurumi · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-23 13:41:04Z

2

If you have ruby(1.9.1+)

ruby -e 'puts Dir["chap*pdf"].sort_by{|x|x[/\d+/].to_i}'

answered Jan 23, 2011 at 13:41

kurumi

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1 Comment

wakandan Over a year ago

One more nice thing about Ruby. Thanks for the info. Good luck in so.com. :D

mpenkov · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-23 13:17:40Z

1

Assuming that you want to rename the files so you don't have to keep sorting them later:

for f in chap*-solutions.pdf; do num=`echo $f | grep -o "[0123456789]\+"`; two_num=`printf "%02d" $num`; mv $f chap$two_num-solutions.pdf; done

grep -o "[0123456789]+" outputs the chapter number (one or two digits)
printf returns a string that contains the zero-padded number

answered Jan 23, 2011 at 13:17

mpenkov

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1 Comment

wakandan Over a year ago

And this is what they call "thoughtful". It touched my intention of renaming some files. Thanks a lot :D

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