man sort

[Austin Hook <austin_(_at_)_canuck_(_dot_)_com>]

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but it seems to me the -t field
separator option in the sort program does not work as advertised; in
particular it does not default to a blank if the option is not specified,
but rather it defaults to no field separator at all.

The man page reads a follows:

     -t char
             char is used as the field separator character. The initial char
             is not considered to be part of a field when determining key off-
             sets (see below).  Each occurrence of char is significant (for
             example, ``charchar'' delimits an empty field).  If -t is not
             specified, blank space characters are used as default field sepa-
             rators.

and I think it should read as:

     -t char
             char is used as the field separator character. The initial char
             is not considered to be part of a field when determining key off-
             sets (see below).  Each occurrence of char is significant (for
             example, ``charchar'' delimits an empty field).  If char is
             not specified then blank space characters are used as default
             field separators. If -t is not specified at all then there is
             no field separator and the entire line is the first and only
             field. 

Austin Hook
Calgary