xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/tsort/tsort.1 (revision 06c3fb2749bda94cb5201f81ffdb8fa6c3161b2e)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1993, 1994
2.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" This manual is derived from one contributed to Berkeley by
5.\" Michael Rendell of Memorial University of Newfoundland.
6.\"
7.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
8.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
9.\" are met:
10.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
11.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
12.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
13.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
14.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
15.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
16.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
17.\"    without specific prior written permission.
18.\"
19.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
20.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
21.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
22.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
23.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
24.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
25.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
26.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
27.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
28.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
29.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
30.\"
31.Dd August 30, 2020
32.Dt TSORT 1
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm tsort
36.Nd topological sort of a directed graph
37.Sh SYNOPSIS
38.Nm
39.Op Fl dlq
40.Op Ar file
41.Sh DESCRIPTION
42The
43.Nm
44utility takes a list of pairs of node names representing directed arcs in
45a graph and prints the nodes in topological order on standard output.
46Input is taken from the named
47.Ar file ,
48or from standard input if no file
49is given.
50.Pp
51There must be an even number of nodes in the input.
52Node names specified on the same line should be white space separated.
53.Pp
54Presence of a node in a graph can be represented by an arc from the node
55to itself.
56This is useful when a node is not connected to any other nodes.
57.Pp
58If the graph contains a cycle (and therefore cannot be properly sorted),
59one of the arcs in the cycle is ignored and the sort continues.
60Cycles are reported on standard error.
61.Pp
62The options are as follows:
63.Bl -tag -width indent
64.It Fl d
65Turn on debugging.
66.It Fl l
67Search for and display the longest cycle.
68Can take a very long time.
69.It Fl q
70Do not display informational messages about cycles.
71This is primarily
72intended for building libraries, where optimal ordering is not critical,
73and cycles occur often.
74.El
75.Sh EXAMPLES
76Assuming a file named
77.Pa dag
78with the following contents representing a directed acyclic graph:
79.Bd -literal -offset indent
80A B
81A F
82B C
83B D
84D E
85.Ed
86.Pp
87Sort the nodes of the graph:
88.Bd -literal -offset indent
89$ tsort dag
90A
91F
92B
93D
94C
95E
96.Ed
97.Pp
98White spaces and new line characters are considered equal.
99This file for example is considered equal to the one we defined before:
100.Bd -literal -offset indent
101$ cat dga
102A B A F B C B D D E
103.Ed
104.Pp
105Assume we add a new directed arc from D to A creating a cycle:
106.Bd -literal -offset indent
107A B
108A F
109B C
110B D
111D E
112D A
113.Ed
114.Pp
115Ordering the graph detects the cycle:
116.Bd -literal -offset indent
117$ tsort dag
118tsort: cycle in data
119tsort: A
120tsort: B
121tsort: D
122D
123E
124A
125F
126B
127C
128.Ed
129.Pp
130Same as above but silencing the warning about the cycle:
131.Bd -literal -offset indent
132$ tsort -q dag
133D
134E
135A
136F
137B
138C
139.Ed
140.Sh SEE ALSO
141.Xr ar 1
142.Sh HISTORY
143The
144.Nm
145command appeared in
146.At v7 .
147This
148.Nm
149command and manual page are derived from sources contributed to Berkeley by
150.An Michael Rendell
151of Memorial University of Newfoundland.
152.Sh BUGS
153The
154.Nm
155utility does not recognize multibyte characters.
156