[ILUG] [LONG] sort strangeness ?

[Declan Grady]

Hi,
I have a bash script to ftp, sort and join two ascii files from another box, 
then diff the resulting file with the equivalent file from yesterday.
However, the sort command seems to work differently when in the script, 
compared to when I run the same series of commands at the bash prompt.

sort (GNU textutils) 2.0e

I even tried sorting the files twice, as when I sorted the already sorted file 
at the command prompt, it changed the order.

Below are snippets from script and 'head' of files before and after sorting at 
command prompt.

Any suggestions ?

Declan


snippet of script is :
-------------------------------------
#!/bin/sh
# Sort the 0118 file twice
sort dd_0118.tmp >dd_0118.tmp.sort1
sort dd_0118.tmp.sort1 >dd_sorted_0118.tmp

#Sort the 0120 file twice
sort dd_0120.tmp >dd_0120.tmp.sort1
sort dd_0120.tmp.sort1 >dd_sorted_0120.tmp

# Join the reulting files on field 1 from each file
join dd_sorted_0118.tmp dd_sorted_0120.tmp >dd_joined.tmp

#Get the differences between today and yesterday
diff dd_joined.tmp dd_joined.old >dd_joined.tmp2
-------------------------------------------
'head' of before and after sorting at command prompt.

[me at mail nuvotem]# head dd_sorted_0118.tmp
         .     DIA001 10061998
         1     SCA001 09051995
         2     HEW001 11101996
         3     AVI001 11101996
         4     THO001 11101996
         5     RSC001 29092000
         6     RSC001 29092000
         7     STR001 29092000
         8     STR001 29092000
         9     AMV001 29092000
[me at mail nuvotem]# sort dd_sorted_0118.tmp >sort_again.tmp
[me at mail nuvotem]# head sort_again.tmp
     10000     ISA001 08112001
     10001     ISA001 08112001
     10002     ICA001 09112001
     10003     AMV001 31102001
     10004     JPM001 09112001
     10005     RSC001 09112001
     10006     RSC001 09112001
     10007     MAS001 09112001
     10008     ISA001 09112001
     10009     MJA001 09112001
[me at mail nuvotem]#