Re: Apparent bug in sort command

[Jim Meyering]

"Robert K. Nelson" <address@hidden> wrote:
> Program: sort (textutils)
> Version: 2.0.14
> Problem: the -n option doesn't appear to work correctly when character offsets
> are given in the -k field
>
> Example: give the command
>
> sort -n -k4.5 <bug
>
> where "bug" contains the following lines
>
> 0     0     30    Lat_5                  2.637e-01
> 1     19    32    Lat_7                  2.634e-01
> 2     21    33    Lat_8                  2.650e-01
> 22    16    27    Lat_2                  2.783e-01

Thanks for the report, but it's not a bug.
Use this to do what you want:

  sort -k4.5bn

For more details, see this reply to a similar report:

  http://mail.gnu.org/pipermail/bug-textutils/2002-January/001075.html