Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site umcp-cs.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!rlgvax!cvl!umcp-cs!mark
From: mark@umcp-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Subject: Re: /bin/sort bug
Message-ID: <2329@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 31-Aug-83 23:12:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.2329
Posted: Wed Aug 31 23:12:10 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 1-Sep-83 22:25:58 EDT
References: <133@ccieng5.UUCP>
Organization: Univ. of Maryland, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 12

I think the problem is that /bin/sort doesn't guarantee anything
about the order of records which are "equal" on the specified
sorting fields.  This is typical of sort programs, actually,
since they can then run faster.  Sort does a lot of sorting
of subsets into temp files and then merging the results--retaining
equality ordering would be difficult.
-- 
spoken:	mark weiser
UUCP:	{seismo,allegra,brl-bmd}!umcp-cs!mark
CSNet:	mark@umcp-cs
ARPA:	mark.umcp-cs@UDel-Relay