.\" @(#)man/man8/mksort.an	1.4 8/2/92 03:32:43
.TH MKSORT X_MAN8_EXT_X "31 January 1988" "Local"
.SH NAME
mksort \- sort the standard input, allowing arbitrarily long lines
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B X_UTIL_BIN_DIR_X/mksort
.RB "[ " \-f " ]"
.RI "[ " file " ...  ]"
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I 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
.B \-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.''
.PP
If no input files are specified, the standard input is read.  In
addition, if a filename of
.B \-
is given, the standard input is inserted at that point.
.PP
The
.I mksort
program can be used in combination with
.IR mkline (X_MAN8_EXT_X)
to produce sorted files containing arbitrarily large aliases or paths
which can then be read by a
.IR smail (X_MAN8_EXT_X)
pathalias router or aliasfile director.  The router or director should
be configured to use the
.I bsearch
file access protocol.  See
.IR smail (X_MAN5_EXT_X)
for more information on routers and directors.
.SH EXAMPLE
As an example of the use of
.I mksort
with
.I mkline
consider a file,
.IR aliases ,
containing the following aliasing information:
.PP
.RS
.nf
.ta \w'UUCP-Postmaster:'u+2n \w'Wilt . (the Stilt) Chamberlain@NBA.US:'u+2n
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)
.DT
.fi
.RE
.PP
Given this file, the command
.I "mkline aliases | mksort -f"
will yield:
.PP
.RS
.nf
.ta \w'UUCP-Postmaster:'u+2n \w'Wilt . (the Stilt) Chamberlain@NBA.US:'u+2n
chongo:chongo@eek.uts.amdahl.com
Postmaster:hustead
tron:tron@namei.uucp
UUCP-Postmasters:tron,chongo yamato
yamato:yamato@kremvax.ussr.comm
.fi
.RE
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.IR mkline (X_MAN8_EXT_X),
.IR mkdbm (X_MAN8_EXT_X),
.IR smail (X_MAN5_EXT_X),
.IR smail (X_MAN8_EXT_X),
.IR pathalias (X_MAN8_EXT_X).
.SH COPYRIGHT
Copyright(C)1987, 1988 Ronald S. Karr and Landon Curt Noll
.br
Copyright(C)1992 Ronald S. Karr
.br
See a file COPYING,
distributed with the source code,
or type
.I "smail -bc"
for distribution rights and restrictions
associated with this software.
