Using Bash Sort to Sort Files Like a Boss

Are you looking out for a way to organize your files and perform some operations on them? There are many instances in programming where you need to sort some data, such as a list of files. Sorting files with the Bash sort and ls commands will help you keep things organized.

In this tutorial, you will learn the fundamentals of sorting files and file contents.

Let’s get sorting!

Prerequisites

This tutorial uses Ubuntu 20.04, but any Linux distribution will work.

Related:How to Get Started with Git Bash on Windows

Bash Sort Files Alphabetically

There are tons of ways to sort files in Linux, but let’s get down to the most common way, sorting files alphabetically.

Launch your terminal and run the ls -l command below to get a list of files in a directory in ascending order. The -l flag tells the ls command to print the returned output in a long list format.

ls -l

By default, the ls command lists files in ascending order. To reverse the sorting order, pass the -r flag to the ls -l command, like this: ls -lr. Passing the -r flag to the ls -l command applies to other examples in this tutorial.

Using Bash Sort to Order Files by Size

Instead of sorting files alphabetically, you may want to sort files by file size. Sorting files by size is handy when prioritizing seeing either the smallest or largest files in a list.

To sort files by size, pass the -S flag to tell the ls command to sort the list of files by file size.

Run the command below to list files (ls) sorted by file size in a long list format (-lS).

ls -lS

Below, you can see the command sorted the files by size in descending order (biggest to smallest in size).

To reverse the sorting order (smallest to biggest), add the -r flag, like this: ls -lSr

Sort Files by Modification Time via Bash Sort

Moving forward from sorting files by size, you might encounter a use case where you need to sort files by the time they were modified. For example, you forgot the name of the file you created, and you only remember the time you last modified the file.

Run the command below where the -t parameter tells the ls command to sort the files by modification time.

ls -lt

Sorting Files by File Extension

When you’re looking for a file with a particular file type, sorting files by file extension is the ideal solution.

Execute the command below to list files (ls) in the working directory and sort based on their extensions (-lx).

ls -lX

Notice below that the command sorted the files with the same extension in ascending order based on their names.

Sorting Contents in a Text File

By now, you have learned various methods to sort the files in a directory. Shifting your focus from the ls command, try running the sort command. The sort command sorts file contents depending on the flag you’ll be adding. But first, you need a file with contents you’ll modify.

Run the command below to create a text file named ~/data/fruits.txt that contains names of fruits. The -e flag enables interpretation of backslash to write each word on a new line (\n).

echo -e "apple \nmango \nwatermelon \ncherry \norange \nbanana" > fruits.txt

Now run the command below to sort each word in fruits.txt.

sort fruits.txt

Below, you can see the file’s contents are sorted in ascending order.

Without any flags, the sort command sorts the file contents in ascending order by default. To reverse the sorting order, add the -r flag to the sort command, like this: sort -r fruits.txt. Sorting in reverse order by adding the -r flag applies to other examples in this tutorial.

Sorting a List of Numbers in a Text File

The command to sort numbers is similar to sorting texts in a file, but you’ll be adding the -n flag instead. Let’s create a file first to demonstrate how to sort numerically a file’s content.

Run the command below to create a file named ~/data/scores.txt that contains random numbers, each in a new line.

echo -e "45 \n69 \n52 \n21 \n3 \n5 \n78" > scores.txt

Now run the command below to sort the numbers (-n) in the ~/data/scores.txt file.

sort -n scores.txt

You can see below, the numbers listed in lines starting from smallest to the biggest number.

Sorting a List of Version Numbers in a Text File

Perhaps you have a list of version numbers in a text file you want to sort. If so, adding the --version-sort option will do the trick.

To demonstrate how the --version-sort option works, create a text file first.

Run the command below to create a text file named ~/data/versions.txt with random version numbers listed, each on a new line (\n).

echo -e "1.0.0.1 \n 6.2.1.0 \n4.0.0.2" > versions.txt

Now run the command below to sort the version numbers (--version-sort) in the versions.txt file. The --field-separator option tells the sort command that the numbers in each version are separated by a dot (.). You can change the field separator to any character that separates the numbers on the versions listed in your text file.

sort --version-sort --field-separator=. versions.txt

Bash Sort to Find and Sort Files via File Extension

You’ve been running single commands (either ls or sort) in the previous examples. But in programming, you may often need to use two or more commands together. How? By pipelining one command to another.

Run the command below to find all markdown files (-iname "*.md") in the working directory (.), and sort them in alphabetically descending order (sort -r). Try finding and sorting other files by changing "*.md" to another file extension.

Related:How to Find Files with Dozens of Criteria with the Bash Find Command

find . -iname "*.md" | sort -r

If you prefer to save the sorted output to a text file instead of standard output on the console, add the --output option, like this: find . -iname "*.md" | sort -r --output=sorted.txt. The --output option tells the sort command to create an output file for the sorted list of files.

Conclusion

The motive of this article was to teach you about different ways of sorting using Bash commands on a Linux machine. You’ve now learned to sort the listing of files and sort file contents. Additionally, you should also know how to pipeline different commands for more complex file sorting.

With this newfound knowledge as a stepping stone, why not create scripts to automate file lists and file content sorting?