What is this?

Omegasort is a text file sorting tool that aims to be the last sorting tool you'll need.

I wrote this because I like to keep various types of files in a sorted order (.gitignore files, lists of spelling stopwords, etc.) and I wanted a tool I could call as part of my commit hooks and CI (using precious).

Installation

There are several ways to install this tool.

Use ubi

Install my universal binary installer (ubi) tool and you can use it to download omegasort and many other tools.

$> ubi --project houseabsolute/omegasort --in ~/bin

Binary Releases

You can grab a binary release from the releases page. Untar the tarball and put the executable it contains somewhere in your path and you're good to go.

usage: omegasort [<flags>] [<file>]

Flags:

Short	Long	Description
-s	--sort <SORT>	The type of sorting to use. See below for options.
-l	--locale <LOCALE>	The locale to use for sorting. If this is not specified the sorting is in codepoint order.
-u	--unique	Make the file contents unique, or check that they're unique when used with --check.
	--comment-prefix PREFIX	A string that precedes comments. If this is set, comments starting with this string will be preserved and come before the same line in the sorted output. If the comment is preceded by an empty line, that empty line will also be preserved, unless the comment is the first thing in the file. If the --unique flag is also set then only the comment from the first instance of a repeated line will be preserved. If the --reverse flag is also set then only the last instance's comment will be preserved.
-c	--case-insensitive	Sort case-insensitively. Note that many locales always do this so if you specify a locale you may get case-insensitive output regardless of this flag.
-r	--reverse	Sort in reverse order.
	--windows	Parse paths as Windows paths for path sort.
-i	--in-place	Modify the file in place instead of making a backup.
	--stdout	Print the sorted output to stdout instead of making a new file.
	--check	Check that the file is sorted instead of sorting it. If it is not sorted the exit status will be 1.
	--debug	Print out debugging info while running.
-h		Show help summary.
	--help	Show extended help with details about each sorting type.
-V	--version	Show application version.

Positional Args:

• [<file>] The file to sort.

Sorting Options:

• text - sort the file as text according to the specified locale
• numbered-text - sort the file assuming that each line starts with a numeric prefix, then fall back to sorting by text according to the specified locale
• datetime-text - sort the file assuming that each line starts with a date or datetime prefix, then fall back to sorting by text according to the specified locale
• path - sort the file assuming that each line is a path, sorted so that deeper paths come after shorter
• ip - sort the file assuming that each line is an IP address
• network - sort the file assuming that each line is a network in CIDR form

Text (--sort text)

This sorts each line of the file as text without any special parsing. The exact sorting is determined by the --locale, --case-insensitive, and --reverse flags.

Numbered Text (--sort numbered-text)

This assumes that each line of the file starts with a numeric value, optionally followed by non-numeric text.

Lines should not have any leading space before the number. The number can either be an integer (including 0) or a simple float (no scientific notation).

The lines will be sorted numerically first. If two lines have the same number they will be sorted by text as above.

Lines without numbers always sort after lines with numbers.

This sorting method accepts the --locale, --case-insensitive, and --reverse flags.

Datetime (--sort datetime-text)

This sorting method assumes that each line starts with a date or datetime, without any space in it. That means that a string with both a date and a time needs to be in a format like "2019-08-27T19:13:16".

Lines should not have any leading space before the datetime.

This sorting method accepts the --locale, --case-insensitive, and --reverse flags.

Path (--sort path)

Each line is treated as a path.

The paths are sorted by the following rules:

• Absolute paths come before relative.
• Paths are sorted by depth before sorting by the path content, so /z comes before /a/a.
• If you pass the --windows flag, then paths with drive letters or UNC names are sorted based on that prefix first. Paths with drive letters or UNC names sort before paths without them.

This sorting method accepts the --locale, --case-insensitive, and --reverse flags in addition to the --windows flag.

IP (--sort ip)

This method assumes that each line is an IPv4 or IPv6 address (not a network).

The sorting method is the same as if each line were the corresponding integer for the address. IPv4 addresses always sort before IPv6 addresses.

This sorting method accepts the --reverse flag.

Network (--sort network)

This method assumes that each line is an IPv4 or IPv6 network in CIDR notation.

If there are two networks with the same base address they are sorted with the larger network first (so 1.1.1.0/24 comes before 1.1.1.0/28). IPv4 networks always sort before IPv6 networks.

This sorting method accepts the --reverse flag.