Article View: comp.bugs.sys5
Article #237Re: Sort bug causes data loss
From: Bruce D. Becker
Date: Fri, 21 Sep 1990 02:10
Date: Fri, 21 Sep 1990 02:10
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1459 bytes
In article <2675@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.com (bill davidsen) writes: | | I have discovered what appears to be a serious bug in the sort |routine used in several SysV variants including Stellar. Since it |causes silent loss of data I am cross posting a bit more than I usually |do. | | The problem occurs when the options -n (numeric) and -u (discard |duplicates) are used together sorting data which has a fixed width |numeric as the first key field. The results is output of only one line, |regardless of the input data. I found this by losing 15 months of data |(yes it was backed up). Since sort is often in shell scripts run from |cron to do system things, this problem might not be instantly noticed. | | I have generated the following shell script to test for the problem. | [...] This isn't a problem on the AT&T 3B1, although Convergent may have used the BSD version... -- ,u, Bruce Becker Toronto, Ontario a /i/ Internet: bdb@becker.UUCP, bruce@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu `\o\-e UUCP: ...!uunet!mnetor!becker!bdb _< /_ "I still have my phil-os-o-phy" - Meredith Monk
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!telly!lethe!becker!bdb From: bdb@becker.UUCP (Bruce D. Becker) Newsgroups: comp.bugs.sys5 Subject: Re: Sort bug causes data loss Keywords: bug, sort Message-ID: <39029@becker.UUCP> Date: 21 Sep 90 02:10:55 GMT References: <2675@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> Organization: G. T. S., Toronto, Ontario, Canada Lines: 25