Problem sorting using '/' as a field separator

rnturn · 08-02-2016, 11:57 PM

Old hand at sort? Here's one for ya...

I have a file full of paths and files obtained from a "find * -type f | sort" command that looks something like (the directories and filenames have been changed to protect the innocent):

Code:

a/a_a1.dat
a/a_b1.dat
a/a_d1.dat
a/a_d2.dat
a/a_f/a_c1.dat
a/a_f/a_d1.dat
a/a_f/a_e1.dat
a/a_g1.dat
b/b_a1.dat
b/b_b1.dat
c/c_a1.dat
.
.
.

Which gives me a sorted listing but the listing for directory "a" is interrupted by the list of files in "a/a_f/". What I'd like to do is reorder this to something like:

Code:

a/a_a1.dat
a/a_b1.dat
a/a_d1.dat
a/a_d2.dat
a/a_g1.dat
a/a_f/a_c1.dat
a/a_f/a_d1.dat
a/a_f/a_e1.dat
b/b_a1.dat
b/b_b1.dat
c/c_a1.dat
.
.
.

I tried

Code:

find * -type f | sort --field-separator=/ -k...   (as well as "='/'" )

and I still get the same ordering as the first listing.

Is there a reasonably simple way to do this?

I'm thinking of going down the road of:

Code:

find * -type d | sort | while read DN
do
    find $DN -maxdepth 1 -type f | sort
done

which I seems to do the trick though I'm hoping that I've just missed something about "sort --field-separator" and can keep this to a one-liner.

Can I?

Or is using the "sort with field separator" solution hopeless because the records don't have the same number of fields?

TIA...

--
Rick

grail · 08-03-2016, 04:37 AM

Not sure ona solution off the top of my head, but what you are after is to sort all files before directories.

syg00 · 08-03-2016, 05:59 AM

No collating sequence I know will allow sort to put "g" before "f" (in an ascending sort). Forlorn hope for sort to do it unaided IMHO.

danielbmartin · 08-03-2016, 03:26 PM

With this InFile ...

Code:

a/a_a1.dat
a/a_b1.dat
a/a_d1.dat
a/a_d2.dat
a/a_f/a_c1.dat
a/a_f/a_d1.dat
a/a_f/a_e1.dat
a/a_g1.dat
b/b_a1.dat
b/b_b1.dat
c/c_a1.dat

... this code ...

Code:

awk -F_ '{sub("_","~"NF)}1' $InFile  \
|sort  |sed 's/~./_/' >$OutFile

... produced this OutFile ...

Code:

a/a_a1.dat
a/a_b1.dat
a/a_d1.dat
a/a_d2.dat
a/a_g1.dat
a/a_f/a_c1.dat
a/a_f/a_d1.dat
a/a_f/a_e1.dat
b/b_a1.dat
b/b_b1.dat
c/c_a1.dat

Daniel B. Martin

NevemTeve · 08-04-2016, 08:10 AM

How about 'find . -s'?

AnanthaP · 08-04-2016, 09:05 AM

tree ?

grail · 08-04-2016, 11:10 AM

@NevemTeve - your command gives me an 'unknown predicate' error ... is '-s' part of a different version of find?

NevemTeve · 08-04-2016, 11:18 AM

I admit, I cannot test it right now. I'd say find without any sort would do what the OP wants.

rnturn · 08-04-2016, 09:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NevemTeve

How about 'find . -s'?

"-s"? Not familiar with that switch on any Unix/Linux variant I've ever used. (My OpenSUSE manpages and info are coming up dry when I search for that.) And... it returns:

Code:

find: unknown predicate `-s'

What's it supposed to do?

rnturn · 08-04-2016, 10:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by syg00

No collating sequence I know will allow sort to put "g" before "f" (in an ascending sort). Forlorn hope for sort to do it unaided IMHO.

Well I had been trying to convince sort to pull that off with the '/' as a delimiter. Of course, I realize that sort doesn't care about the difference between files and directories but thought there might be a way. (I obviously don't use sort enough, I guess. Just the basics.)

rnturn · 08-04-2016, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnanthaP

tree ?

That might work.

My goal was/is to generate a listing of directories that I can cut-n-paste from to send off to users to have them clean up or, in other cases, get back to me so I know which files can be tarred up (which files go in what archives, etc.) or, preferably, the users will have a short command they can use /themselves/ before they tackle those tasks. (Hey! A guy can dream, can't he?)

I'll have to look whether the admins at the site I'm working with even bothered to install 'tree'. On my home systems, only my ancient RedHat system has it installed -- and I'm pretty sure I went with a barebones install on that one. If it's not there, I'll be stuck on square one. I'll check tomorrow.

keefaz · 08-05-2016, 07:55 AM

Why not make multiple lists, each having a specific path depth, 100% compatible with standard sort this way