Linux sort or FILE::SORT

perl_lover_always has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

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Re: Linux sort or FILE::SORT by Utilitarian (Vicar) on Feb 08, 2011 at 10:42 UTC
The sort utility in the shell is a C program optimised for sorting, it will always be faster than loading Perl and calling a module, regardless of the efficiency of the module (assuming someone doesn't come up with a spectacularly fast new sort algorithm ;) `print "Good ",qw(night morning afternoon evening)[(localtime)[2]/6]," fellow monks."`	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Linux sort or FILE::SORT by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Feb 08, 2011 at 11:04 UTC
It is actually quite easy to beat gnusort for performance. Firstly it uses miniscule buffers relative to modern memory sizes necessitating far more write read cycles than could ever be optimum. Secondly, with most machines having multiple cores these days, it is silly not to utilise them. Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.	[reply]
Re^3: Linux sort or FILE::SORT by Utilitarian (Vicar) on Feb 08, 2011 at 13:41 UTC
It does take the -S $BUFFER_SIZE flag. Are sort operations usually CPU bound? `print "Good ",qw(night morning afternoon evening)[(localtime)[2]/6]," fellow monks."`	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: Linux sort or FILE::SORT by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Feb 08, 2011 at 14:37 UTC
Re^5: Linux sort or FILE::SORT by salva (Canon) on Feb 08, 2011 at 14:52 UTC
Re^5: Linux sort or FILE::SORT by Utilitarian (Vicar) on Feb 08, 2011 at 15:02 UTC
Re^5: Linux sort or FILE::SORT by Anonymous Monk on Feb 09, 2011 at 03:05 UTC
Some notes below your chosen depth have not been shown here
Re: Linux sort or FILE::SORT by Anonyrnous Monk (Hermit) on Feb 08, 2011 at 14:29 UTC
See also Sort::External and sorting very large text files. In case of doubt, benchmark it.	[reply]


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