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.. default-domain:: py
.. currentmodule:: natsort
.. _shell:
Shell Script
============
The ``natsort`` shell script is automatically installed when you install
:mod:`natsort` with pip.
Below is the usage and some usage examples for the ``natsort`` shell script.
Usage
-----
.. code-block::
usage: natsort [-h] [--version] [-p] [-f LOW HIGH] [-F LOW HIGH] [-e EXCLUDE]
[-r] [-t {digit,int,float,version,ver}] [--nosign] [--noexp]
[--locale]
[entries [entries ...]]
Performs a natural sort on entries given on the command-line.
A natural sort sorts numerically then alphabetically, and will sort
by numbers in the middle of an entry.
positional arguments:
entries The entries to sort. Taken from stdin if nothing is
given on the command line.
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--version show program's version number and exit
-p, --paths Interpret the input as file paths. This is not
strictly necessary to sort all file paths, but in
cases where there are OS-generated file paths like
"Folder/" and "Folder (1)/", this option is needed to
make the paths sorted in the order you expect
("Folder/" before "Folder (1)/").
-f LOW HIGH, --filter LOW HIGH
Used for keeping only the entries that have a number
falling in the given range.
-F LOW HIGH, --reverse-filter LOW HIGH
Used for excluding the entries that have a number
falling in the given range.
-e EXCLUDE, --exclude EXCLUDE
Used to exclude an entry that contains a specific
number.
-r, --reverse Returns in reversed order.
-t {digit,int,float,version,ver,real,f,i,r,d},
--number-type {digit,int,float,version,ver,real,f,i,r,d},
--number_type {digit,int,float,version,ver,real,f,i,r,d}
Choose the type of number to search for. "float" will
search for floating-point numbers. "int" will only
search for integers. "digit", "version", and "ver" are
synonyms for "int"."real" is a shortcut for "float"
with --sign. "i" and "d" are synonyms for "int", "f"
is a synonym for "float", and "r" is a synonym for
"real".The default is int.
--nosign Do not consider "+" or "-" as part of a number, i.e.
do not take sign into consideration. This is the
default.
-s, --sign Consider "+" or "-" as part of a number, i.e. take
sign into consideration. The default is unsigned.
--noexp Do not consider an exponential as part of a number,
i.e. 1e4, would be considered as 1, "e", and 4, not as
10000. This only effects the --number-type=float.
-l, --locale Causes natsort to use locale-aware sorting. You will
get the best results if you install PyICU.
Description
-----------
``natsort`` was originally written to aid in computational chemistry
research so that it would be easy to analyze large sets of output files
named after the parameter used:
.. code-block:: console
$ ls *.out
mode1000.35.out mode1243.34.out mode744.43.out mode943.54.out
(Obviously, in reality there would be more files, but you get the idea.) Notice
that the shell sorts in lexicographical order. This is the behavior of programs like
``find`` as well as ``ls``. The problem is passing these files to an
analysis program causes them not to appear in numerical order, which can lead
to bad analysis. To remedy this, use ``natsort``:
.. code-block:: console
$ natsort *.out
mode744.43.out
mode943.54.out
mode1000.35.out
mode1243.34.out
$ natsort -t r *.out | xargs your_program
``-t r`` is short for ``--number-type real``. You can also place natsort in
the middle of a pipe:
.. code-block:: console
$ find . -name "*.out" | natsort -t r | xargs your_program
To sort version numbers, use the default ``--number-type``:
.. code-block:: console
$ ls *
prog-1.10.zip prog-1.9.zip prog-2.0.zip
$ natsort *
prog-1.9.zip
prog-1.10.zip
prog-2.0.zip
In general, all ``natsort`` shell script options mirror the :func:`~natsorted`
API, with notable exception of the ``--filter``, ``--reverse-filter``, and ``--exclude``
options. These three options are used as follows:
.. code-block:: console
$ ls *.out
mode1000.35.out mode1243.34.out mode744.43.out mode943.54.out
$ natsort -t r *.out -f 900 1100 # Select only numbers between 900-1100
mode943.54.out
mode1000.35.out
$ natsort -t r *.out -F 900 1100 # Select only numbers NOT between 900-1100
mode744.43.out
mode1243.34.out
$ natsort -t r *.out -e 1000.35 # Exclude 1000.35 from search
mode744.43.out
mode943.54.out
mode1243.34.out
If you are sorting paths with OS-generated filenames, you may require the
``--paths``/``-p`` option:
.. code-block:: console
$ find . ! -path . -type f
./folder/file (1).txt
./folder/file.txt
./folder (1)/file.txt
./folder (10)/file.txt
./folder (2)/file.txt
$ find . ! -path . -type f | natsort
./folder (1)/file.txt
./folder (2)/file.txt
./folder (10)/file.txt
./folder/file (1).txt
./folder/file.txt
$ find . ! -path . -type f | natsort -p
./folder/file.txt
./folder/file (1).txt
./folder (1)/file.txt
./folder (2)/file.txt
./folder (10)/file.txt
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