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in reply to Re: sort large file
in thread sort large file

...unless the file is truly huge. Sort has its limitations - for instance, on solaris it tends to use /var/tmp to store that temporary file, and if you're dealing with a few gigs worth of data, you can easily run out of even disk space for the tmp files (painful, true story). Not that I have a better solution :)



"I have never written bad code. There are merely unanticipated features."

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Re: sort large file
by Anonymous Monk on Apr 01, 2004 at 23:03 UTC
    Solaris sort offers -T to specify a directory for its temprary files.
Re: Sort large file
by Abigail-II (Bishop) on Apr 01, 2004 at 17:02 UTC
    Sure, there will always be limitations. But it's usually cheaper/easier to add a few gigs of disk space than it is to add a few gigs of RAM. (And if you do it in Perl, multiply that by a factor as well). Typically, 'sort' will need free disk space about the same amount as the file to sort is large.

    Abigail