Re: new coreutil? shuffle - randomize file contents

[Paul Eggert]

address@hidden writes:

> Logically the only difference from sort is the low level ordering
> algorithm. so I vote for and extra arg to sort:
> --sort="random".

More generally, sort could pretend that every line had an extra field
called "R" whose contents are random.  That way, you could use, e.g.:

  sort -k 2,2 -k R

which would mean "sort by the 2nd field, but if there are ties then
sort the ties randomly".  "sort -R" would be short for "sort -k R".

It's not as easy to implement as it sounds, I'm afraid; even if you
can assume /dev/random or /dev/urandom.