xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/tsort/tsort.1 (revision 1669d8afc64812c8d2d1d147ae1fd42ff441e1b1)
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35.\"     @(#)tsort.1	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/1/94
36.\" $FreeBSD$
37.\"
38.Dd December 27, 2006
39.Dt TSORT 1
40.Os
41.Sh NAME
42.Nm tsort
43.Nd topological sort of a directed graph
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.Nm
46.Op Fl dlq
47.Op Ar file
48.Sh DESCRIPTION
49The
50.Nm
51utility takes a list of pairs of node names representing directed arcs in
52a graph and prints the nodes in topological order on standard output.
53Input is taken from the named
54.Ar file ,
55or from standard input if no file
56is given.
57.Pp
58There must be an even number of nodes in the input.
59Node names specified on the same line should be white space separated.
60.Pp
61Presence of a node in a graph can be represented by an arc from the node
62to itself.
63This is useful when a node is not connected to any other nodes.
64.Pp
65If the graph contains a cycle (and therefore cannot be properly sorted),
66one of the arcs in the cycle is ignored and the sort continues.
67Cycles are reported on standard error.
68.Pp
69The options are as follows:
70.Bl -tag -width indent
71.It Fl d
72Turn on debugging.
73.It Fl l
74Search for and display the longest cycle.
75Can take a very long time.
76.It Fl q
77Do not display informational messages about cycles.
78This is primarily
79intended for building libraries, where optimal ordering is not critical,
80and cycles occur often.
81.El
82.Sh SEE ALSO
83.Xr ar 1
84.Sh HISTORY
85The
86.Nm
87command appeared in
88.At v7 .
89This
90.Nm
91command and manual page are derived from sources contributed to Berkeley by
92.An Michael Rendell
93of Memorial University of Newfoundland.
94.Sh BUGS
95The
96.Nm
97utility does not recognize multibyte characters.
98