Otherwise, the sort is done in two passes (with the partially sorted data being stored in a temporary file) such that the amounts of memory used for both the sort and merge passes are equal. By default, sort is done in one pass (no temporary file) if the sort fits in the default maximum memory size. The best performance is usually achieved by not specifying a memory size. If the memory size is specified the exact amount will be used for the sort, regardless of how much main memory is available.
The memory size is always constrained to be a minimum of 160 kilobytes. Specifies the amount of main memory to use for the sort, in kilobytes. The 'C' locale yields the fastest collating sequence and is currently the only alternative. Overrides the system default locale with the one specified. Comparisons start at the first character in each line by default. Lines with fewer than n characters collate before other lines. For example, /+3 indicates that each comparison should begin at the 3rd character in each line. Specifies the character number, n, to begin each comparison.
Windows 2000, XP, and later syntax SORT filename1] ] filename3] /+n MS-DOS, Windows 95, 98, ME, and NT syntax.
