#sort for moonx

Version 0.2.3 behavior is documented here. The support record separates local verification from published MoonX behavior; moonx examples use registry releases.

Sort lines of files or stdin:

moonx cli/sort names.txt
printf '10\n2\n' | moonx cli/sort -n
moonx cli/sort -t, -k 2 -u data.csv

Options include -r, -u, -b, -d, -f, and -i, plus -n numeric, -g general numeric, -h human numeric, -M month, and -V version comparisons. Repeated -k F[.C][OPTS][,F[.C][OPTS]] keys support field, character, and local comparison modifiers; -t BYTE selects a field separator. -z selects NUL records. -c/--check diagnoses the first disorder and -C/--check=quiet only returns status 1.

Comparison uses C-locale byte rules without changing environment variables. Blank-separated fields retain their leading separator run unless -b applies; case folding maps lowercase ASCII to uppercase, and human numeric order compares sign, suffix magnitude, then numeric value. Key ties use the whole record as the last resort and remaining ties retain input order. -s/--stable suppresses that whole-record fallback, preserving input order among equal keys. -u retains the first representative under the selected keys.

-R/--random-sort or --sort=random orders transformed keys by MD5(seed || effective key), comparing digest bytes and then key bytes on a digest collision. Equal keys remain together; ordinary record fallback, -s, -u, reverse ordering, and local key modifiers still apply. An effective random key consumes exactly 16 bytes from --random-source=FILE before input processing, even for empty input. Without a source, the public secure random API supplies the seed. A source named - is a literal file. Repeated identical source paths are allowed; different source strings conflict. A source is not read when local key comparison modifiers suppress global random ordering.

-m/--merge merges already-sorted inputs without checking or repairing their order. Equal keys keep operand order and then source order with -s or -u. It shares the heap and temporary runs, including additional rounds when the selected merge fan-in is exceeded.

-o/--output=FILE writes to a named file with empty stdout; -o - names a literal file. Ordinary sorting consumes all input before truncating the output, so existing outputs and input aliases are supported. Missing inputs leave an output uncreated; a later read error can leave a newly created output empty while retaining an existing output's bytes. Check mode conflicts with output. Repeated identical output strings are allowed and distinct strings conflict.

Merge accepts new output files. Merge into an existing output is rejected without mutation: the released filesystem API has no opened-file identity or descriptor truncation with which to protect aliased merge inputs. Lifting this boundary requires those public APIs and alias/error-effect regressions. For named merge output, all inputs are consumed into temporary runs before the output is opened for writing; an input failure can retain the empty file created by output preflight. Standard-output merges can emit earlier records before a later read failure.

Records and transformed keys are prepared once before comparison. Sorting uses a default 64 MiB accounted run budget and at most 16-way heap merges, with 64 KiB input, output and merge buffers. Stable sequence IDs and prepared keys survive disk runs; -u keeps the first representative across run boundaries. Check mode retains only adjacent records. With no file operand, stdin is read until EOF.

-S SIZE/--buffer-size=SIZE selects the accounted sorting-data budget. A bare integer uses KiB, b selects bytes, and K, M, G, T, P, E, Z, Y, R and Q select powers of 1024. Values must fit signed 64-bit byte accounting; fractions and compound suffixes such as MiB reject. Zero and very small requests use the fixed-buffer minimum and still permit an oversized record. Repeated sizes choose the largest, independent of option order. 0% selects the same minimum as zero bytes. Other SIZE% values reject explicitly: released public MoonBit APIs do not expose physical memory totals. Supporting it requires that query, with percentage and overflow regressions; the command does not estimate memory through an external program.

-T DIR/--temporary-directory=DIR overrides the host temporary location and may repeat. Runs rotate between invocation-owned children of those directories; the parent directories are not created or removed. Unused locations are not opened. --batch-size=N requires an integer of at least two and limits merge fan-in to the smaller of N and 16; its default is 16. Environment variables are never changed to implement these controls.

Spilling requires the host to allow writes in its temporary directory. A denied temporary write exits 2 before sorted output is emitted, following GNU sort's fatal-error status. Small in-memory sorts, check mode and standard-output merges within the selected fan-in do not create disk runs; named merge output uses temporary runs even for small inputs. Under a Windows sandbox, the host must also provision TMP or TEMP for temporary-path lookup; the command preserves the environment supplied by the host.

The run budget counts record/key payloads, entry/key slots, sequence IDs and reserved merge buffers/index space. Fixed buffers reserve (selected fan-in + 6) * 64 KiB; at least one record is accepted beyond that minimum. It is not an RSS cap: the active input record, unique-key retention, allocator/GC overhead and oversized individual records can add storage. Oversized records are processed without truncation. Temporary directories and files are created exclusively with restrictive permissions and removed on normal completion or propagated errors; this does not promise cleanup after an unobservable crash or SIGKILL.

#Standalone metadata

Standalone --version prints exactly sort 0.2.3 followed by one newline. Standalone --help starts with Usage: sort, lists both metadata options, and ends with a newline. Both write to stdout, leave stdin unread, and exit with status 0. Exact-version publication and verification remain recorded separately in the support record.

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