You are reading it wrong (or reading too much into it :) ...
>From "man ls"
-s, --size
print size of each file, in blocks
-o use long listing format without group info
-r, --reverse
reverse order while sorting
-t sort by modification time
- Bruce
Stan Isaacs wrote:
> I teach a class in (very) beginning UNIX, using Redhat Linux, version 6.?.
> In one exercise, the book (I use Sobells' "Practical Guide to Linux") asks
> students to list files in a directory by size. I try to get them to use
> ls -l, and pipe it through sort, since size in blocks is not very useful
> for beginning users. First there seems to be a new "-S" flag which does
> sort in bytes (where did that come from? Though I think it is very useful.)
>
> But recently, a student showed me
>
> ls -sort -S
>
> and I was very surprised to see that it seemed to work! It gave a long
> listing in sorted order on bytes. I've never heard of a "-sort" parameter
> to ls, nor does it seem to follow any standards. I would understand better
> if it said "ls --sort C" (or something, which specified characters.)
> Is this a new syntax? Is it general, or special to "ls"? Are we going to
> be able to combine commands at random in the future? What about "ls -wc",
> a usage many students seem to try on quizes!
>
> Thanks,
>
> -- Stan Isaacs
>
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