Re: [wish] sort : what about randomization ?

[Paul Eggert]

It'd be an amusing option to build, albeit not as easy as one might
think at first glance.  Here's a proposed addition to the coreutils
TODO list.

Or perhaps we should have a different program (unsort? assort?) instead.

--- ../coreutils/TODO   Mon Jul 14 11:39:37 2003
+++ TODO        Thu Jul 17 15:42:57 2003
@@ -86,3 +86,13 @@ sort: Compress temporary files when doin
   This improves performance when you can compress/uncompress faster than
   you can read/write, which is common in these days of fast CPUs.
   suggestion from Charles Randall on 2001-08-10
+
+sort: Add an ordering option -R that causes 'sort' to sort according
+  to a random permutation of the correct sort order.  Also, add an
+  option --random-seed=SEED that causes 'sort' to use an arbitrary
+  string SEED to select which permutations to use, in a deterministic
+  manner: that is, if you sort a permutation of the same input file
+  with the same --random-seed=SEED option twice, you'll get the same
+  output.  The default SEED is chosen at random, and contains enough
+  information to ensure that the output permutation is random.
+  suggestion from Feth AREZKI, Stephan Kasal, and Paul Eggert on 2003-07-17