ZFILE sort: Sort an input file

Last updated

Added in 2024.

Requirements and restrictions

• The parameters for this command are case-sensitive. You must enter the parameters exactly as shown in the syntax diagram.
• You can enter this command only when get file storage (GFS) is available or when a memory file system (MFS) or fixed file system (FFS) is mounted on the /.tpfZfileTmpfile directory.

Additional information

• Online help information is available for this command. To display the help information, enter one of the following commands:
  • ZFILE HELP sort
  • ZFILE HELP
  • ZFILE ?
  The correct command syntax is also displayed if you enter the syntax incorrectly.
• If you specify the -b, -d, -f, -i, -n, or -r parameter before specifying the -k parameter, the ZFILE sort command applies that parameter to each -k parameter. Otherwise, you can specify each of these parameters independently on each field argument of the -k parameter. For each field argument of the -k parameter that you independently specify one of these parameters on, any globally specified parameters will not apply to the affected key field.
• To consider only alphanumeric characters for comparison by using the -k parameter, specify both the -b and -d parameters.
• You can sort data from multiple sources such as the standard input stream and files. To sort the output from another ZFILE command, you must pipe the output of the first command into the ZFILE sort command without specifying a path. If you specify a path name, the standard input stream is ignored.
• You can redirect the standard input (stdin) stream from the keyboard to a file by specifying the redirection character (<) followed by the file name that you want the input read from.

  You can redirect the standard output (stdout) stream from the display terminal to a file by specifying one of the redirection characters (> or >>) followed by the file name that you want the output written to. The > character writes the output to a file. The >> character appends the output to an existing file.

  You can redirect the standard error (stderr) stream from the display terminal to a file by specifying one of the redirection characters (2> or 2>>) followed by the file name that you want the error output written to. The 2> character writes the error output to a file. The 2>> character appends the error output to an existing file.

  For example, the ZFILE dd command displays information from both stdin and stdout. You can use redirection to send the information from stderr to stdin, as well as redirect all of the contents of stdout to a file for storage. The following example converts the contents of a file to uppercase, redirects the number of bytes converted from stderr to stdin, and redirects all of the output from stdin to a file named test3.

  User:   zfile cat test1
  
  System: FILE0001I 14.26.32 START OF DISPLAY FROM cat test1
          this is a test
          END OF DISPLAY
  
  User:   zfile dd if=test1 conv=ucase >test3 2>&1
  
  System: FILE0003I 14.26.32 dd if=test1... COMPLETED SUCCESSFULLY. NO OUTPUT TO DISPLAY
  
  User:   zfile cat test3
  
  System: FILE0001I 14.26.32 START OF DISPLAY FROM cat test3
          THIS IS A TEST
          0.1 records in
          0.1 records out
          15 bytes transferred in 1 secs (15 bytes/sec)
          END OF DISPLAY

  Note: When you use the > or 2> character and the file that you are redirecting data to already exists, the file is overwritten and any data in that file is lost. If you do not want to overwrite the file, ensure that you use the >> or 2>> character.
• You can use a vertical bar, or pipe (|), to direct data so that the output from one process becomes the input to another process. This type of one-way communication allows you to combine ZFILE commands on one line to create a pipeline. For example, the following pipeline uses the standard output (stdout) stream from the ZFILE ls command and redirects it to the standard input (stdin) stream of the ZFILE grep command to search for those lines containing the word Jan.

  ZFILE ls -l | grep Jan

  The result is filtered output from the ZFILE ls command displaying only the lines containing the word Jan in any position.

  You can use pipes only with a combination of ZFILE commands where the command on the left side of the pipe provides data through stdout and the right side accepts data through stdin.

• You can use the following wildcard characters in the path name to select files that satisfy a particular name pattern:

  *

  Matches any string, including the empty string.

  ?

  Matches any single character.

  [..]

  Matches any one of the characters between the brackets. You can specify a range of characters by separating a pair of characters with a dash (-).

• This command supports the following three quoting mechanisms, which allow you to override the special meaning of some characters:

  escape character (\)

  Preserves the literal value of the character that follows. To ignore the special meaning of a character, escape it by placing a backslash (\) in front of it. In the example that follows, environment variable PATH is /bin:/usr/bin:., the first dollar sign ($) is escaped because of the preceding backslash, and the second dollar sign takes on a special meaning.

  User:   ZFILE echo \$PATH is $PATH
  
  System: $PATH is /bin:/usr/bin:.

  single quotation marks (' ')

  Preserves the literal value of all characters between the opening single quotation mark and the closing single quotation mark. For example, entering ZFILE echo '*' displays an asterisk character (*). Without the single quotation marks, the files in the current working directory are displayed.

  quotation marks (" ")

  Preserves the literal value of all characters between the opening quotation mark and the closing quotation mark except the dollar sign ($), the backquote (`), and the backslash (\). This allows you to use the escape character inside quotation marks, which you cannot do inside single quotation marks.

  For example, entering ZFILE echo "\$PATH is \"$PATH\""
  displays $PATH is "/bin:/usr/bin:."

  If you want to use the literal meaning of any of the following characters, you always must use a quoting mechanism:

  left angle bracket (<)	right angle bracket (>)	ampersand (&)
  backquote (ˋ)	backslash (\)	dollar sign ($)
  newline (\n)	left parenthesis ( ( )	right parenthesis ( ) )
  quotation mark (")	semicolon (;)	single quotation mark (')
  blank space	tab	vertical bar (|)

  In addition, use a quoting mechanism when any of the following characters are used in a way that takes on a special meaning, but you want to use the literal meaning:

  asterisk (*)	equal sign (=)	left bracket ( [ )
  number sign (#)	question mark (?)	tilde (~)

• The ZFILE sort command is based on a subset of the sort utility of the Portable Operating System Interface for Computer Environments (POSIX) standards.