Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: sort with a tab as separator
Message-ID: <3947@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 23 Aug 90 17:58:58 GMT
References: <1990Aug19.051237.27735@midway.uchicago.edu> <1990Aug22.052738.4487@mcc.pyrsyd.oz>
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 12

>If your shell munges tabs into spaces, try "sort -t'\08'" -- I just
>tried it successfully on a Pyramid in the AT&T universe.  Your
>mileage may vary, of course.

You bet it will!  The vanilla S5 Bourne shell doesn't interpret escape
sequences such as that except in the "echo" command (and I don't think
it even interprets one such as yours; try '\011' instead, 8 not being a
valid octal digit), nor does any other Bourne shell version with which
I'm familiar.  The C shells with which I'm familiar don't do so, either.

What sort of shell are you using? Did Pyramid "improve" the shell by
adding this, or are you running some shell "improved" by somebody else?