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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-02T18:28:01+00:00

Bash is really annoying me with the way that it sorts it’s files with

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Bash is really annoying me with the way that it sorts it’s files with the sort command and can’t seem to find a way around this. When I sort the files with GNOME though by name, it shows it exactly how I want. I’m trying to sort by real order but the 10’s and 1’s mess everything up when sorting in bash. Here’s how bash sorts a sample of my files:

HeadsetBatteryBG_10@2x.png
HeadsetBatteryBG_11@2x.png
HeadsetBatteryBG_12@2x.png
HeadsetBatteryBG_1@2x.png
HeadsetBatteryBG_13@2x.png
HeadsetBatteryBG_14@2x.png
HeadsetBatteryBG_15@2x.png
HeadsetBatteryBG_16@2x.png
HeadsetBatteryBG_17@2x.png
HeadsetBatteryBG_2@2x.png
HeadsetBatteryBG_3@2x.png
HeadsetBatteryBG_4@2x.png
HeadsetBatteryBG_5@2x.png
HeadsetBatteryBG_6@2x.png
HeadsetBatteryBG_7@2x.png
HeadsetBatteryBG_8@2x.png
HeadsetBatteryBG_9@2x.png

I see what it’s doing here, but is there anywhere to sort a list like this in bash how it SHOULD be sorted? With the numbers in real numerical order instead of this strange thing that it’s doing.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Try

    sort -k2 -t_ -n [file]

    That will sort numerically (-n) on the 2nd field (-k2) using _ as the field separator (-t_).

    (Shamelessly stolen from SuperUser)

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