sorting with multiple keys with Linux sort command
问题 Say I have this file. $ cat a.txt c 1002 4 f 1001 1 d 1003 1 a 1001 3 e 1004 2 b 1001 2 I want to sort it by the second column and then by the third column. Column two are numbers, while column 3 can be treated as string. I know the following command works well. $ sort -k2,2n -k3,3 a.txt f 1001 1 b 1001 2 a 1001 3 c 1002 4 d 1003 1 e 1004 2 However, I think sort -k2n a.txt should also work, while it does not. $ sort -k2n a.txt a 1001 3 b 1001 2 f 1001 1 c 1002 4 d 1003 1 e 1004 2 Seems like