mksort - sort the standard input, allowing arbitrarily long lines

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

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.

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

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

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, to view distribution rights and restrictions associated with this software.