bug#10019: sort options -Mn are incompatible

[Pádraig Brady]

On 11/11/2011 01:55 PM, Lars Noodén wrote:
> Since the sort options -M and -n are incompatible, there appears to be no 
> easy way to sort log files.

Sorry if you get a dupe.
My last was sent to 10019-done which I think crossed with Bob's
mail to the same address and was dropped?
I'm not even sure this will go to the list since the
bug is now closed, but for the record...

Here is a recipe I use for sorting access_log files,
which avoids numeric conversion as they're fixed width fields.

  sort -b -k4.9,4.12 -k4.5b,4.7Mb -k4.2,4.3 -k4.14,4 access_log

Though one could use -M and -n on separate fields like `-k1,1M -k2,2n`

Note also the --debug option on recent versions of sort
which helps one figure this out, including subtleties like
needing the b after the M even though a global -b was specified.

cheers,
Pádraig.