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Development Tools Console Foundations Environment and Redirection Pipes and Redirection

James Barrett
James Barrett
13,253 Points
Posted by James Barrett
James Barrett
13,253 Points

What exactly has sort done in Jim's example - why is it useful?

Hi,

I am struggling to understand why Jim used the sort command. What happened to make the results better? To me, it looked like it just brought back more results (4 as apposed to 3) and got rid of the nifty colors which actually seem helpful.

Thanks, James.

A X
A X
12,842 Points

James Barrett : I just wanted to mention that I too was confused by many things in this video, and I appreciate that I'm not the only one that was deeply confused by some of the concepts.

2 Answers

ywang04
ywang04
6,762 Points
ywang04
ywang04
6,762 Points

Below is the example to sort accounts:

To show the accounts without sorting

yang@ubuntu-01:~$ cat /etc/passwd
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/usr/sbin/nologin
bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/usr/sbin/nologin
sys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/usr/sbin/nologin
sync:x:4:65534:sync:/bin:/bin/sync
games:x:5:60:games:/usr/games:/usr/sbin/nologin
man:x:6:12:man:/var/cache/man:/usr/sbin/nologin
lp:x:7:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:/usr/sbin/nologin
mail:x:8:8:mail:/var/mail:/usr/sbin/nologin
news:x:9:9:news:/var/spool/news:/usr/sbin/nologin
uucp:x:10:10:uucp:/var/spool/uucp:/usr/sbin/nologin
proxy:x:13:13:proxy:/bin:/usr/sbin/nologin
www-data:x:33:33:www-data:/var/www:/usr/sbin/nologin
backup:x:34:34:backup:/var/backups:/usr/sbin/nologin
list:x:38:38:Mailing List Manager:/var/list:/usr/sbin/nologin
irc:x:39:39:ircd:/var/run/ircd:/usr/sbin/nologin
gnats:x:41:41:Gnats Bug-Reporting System (admin):/var/lib/gnats:/usr/sbin/nologin
nobody:x:65534:65534:nobody:/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologin
libuuid:x:100:101::/var/lib/libuuid:
syslog:x:101:104::/home/syslog:/bin/false
messagebus:x:102:105::/var/run/dbus:/bin/false
landscape:x:103:109::/var/lib/landscape:/bin/false
sshd:x:104:65534::/var/run/sshd:/usr/sbin/nologin
pollinate:x:105:1::/var/cache/pollinate:/bin/false
yang:x:1000:1000::/home/yang:/bin/bash
mysql:x:106:111:MySQL Server,,,:/nonexistent:/bin/false
mike:x:1001:1001:,,,:/home/mike:/bin/bash

To show the accounts with sorting

yang@ubuntu-01:~$ cat /etc/passwd | sort
backup:x:34:34:backup:/var/backups:/usr/sbin/nologin
bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/usr/sbin/nologin
daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/usr/sbin/nologin
games:x:5:60:games:/usr/games:/usr/sbin/nologin
gnats:x:41:41:Gnats Bug-Reporting System (admin):/var/lib/gnats:/usr/sbin/nologin
irc:x:39:39:ircd:/var/run/ircd:/usr/sbin/nologin
landscape:x:103:109::/var/lib/landscape:/bin/false
libuuid:x:100:101::/var/lib/libuuid:
list:x:38:38:Mailing List Manager:/var/list:/usr/sbin/nologin
lp:x:7:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:/usr/sbin/nologin
mail:x:8:8:mail:/var/mail:/usr/sbin/nologin
man:x:6:12:man:/var/cache/man:/usr/sbin/nologin
messagebus:x:102:105::/var/run/dbus:/bin/false
mike:x:1001:1001:,,,:/home/mike:/bin/bash
mysql:x:106:111:MySQL Server,,,:/nonexistent:/bin/false
news:x:9:9:news:/var/spool/news:/usr/sbin/nologin
nobody:x:65534:65534:nobody:/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologin
pollinate:x:105:1::/var/cache/pollinate:/bin/false
proxy:x:13:13:proxy:/bin:/usr/sbin/nologin
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
sshd:x:104:65534::/var/run/sshd:/usr/sbin/nologin
sync:x:4:65534:sync:/bin:/bin/sync
syslog:x:101:104::/home/syslog:/bin/false
sys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/usr/sbin/nologin
uucp:x:10:10:uucp:/var/spool/uucp:/usr/sbin/nologin
www-data:x:33:33:www-data:/var/www:/usr/sbin/nologin
yang:x:1000:1000::/home/yang:/bin/bash

Hope this helps.

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,198 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,198 Points

It was just a demo of the sort command, not necessarily an improvement.

The extra line was because of the process performing the sort. You could get the coloring back by reversing the order of the sort and grep, since the grep was applying the color.