xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/tsort/tsort.1 (revision 2008043f386721d58158e37e0d7e50df8095942d)
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31.\"     @(#)tsort.1	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/1/94
32.\"
33.Dd August 30, 2020
34.Dt TSORT 1
35.Os
36.Sh NAME
37.Nm tsort
38.Nd topological sort of a directed graph
39.Sh SYNOPSIS
40.Nm
41.Op Fl dlq
42.Op Ar file
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44The
45.Nm
46utility takes a list of pairs of node names representing directed arcs in
47a graph and prints the nodes in topological order on standard output.
48Input is taken from the named
49.Ar file ,
50or from standard input if no file
51is given.
52.Pp
53There must be an even number of nodes in the input.
54Node names specified on the same line should be white space separated.
55.Pp
56Presence of a node in a graph can be represented by an arc from the node
57to itself.
58This is useful when a node is not connected to any other nodes.
59.Pp
60If the graph contains a cycle (and therefore cannot be properly sorted),
61one of the arcs in the cycle is ignored and the sort continues.
62Cycles are reported on standard error.
63.Pp
64The options are as follows:
65.Bl -tag -width indent
66.It Fl d
67Turn on debugging.
68.It Fl l
69Search for and display the longest cycle.
70Can take a very long time.
71.It Fl q
72Do not display informational messages about cycles.
73This is primarily
74intended for building libraries, where optimal ordering is not critical,
75and cycles occur often.
76.El
77.Sh EXAMPLES
78Assuming a file named
79.Pa dag
80with the following contents representing a directed acyclic graph:
81.Bd -literal -offset indent
82A B
83A F
84B C
85B D
86D E
87.Ed
88.Pp
89Sort the nodes of the graph:
90.Bd -literal -offset indent
91$ tsort dag
92A
93F
94B
95D
96C
97E
98.Ed
99.Pp
100White spaces and new line characters are considered equal.
101This file for example is considered equal to the one we defined before:
102.Bd -literal -offset indent
103$ cat dga
104A B A F B C B D D E
105.Ed
106.Pp
107Assume we add a new directed arc from D to A creating a cycle:
108.Bd -literal -offset indent
109A B
110A F
111B C
112B D
113D E
114D A
115.Ed
116.Pp
117Ordering the graph detects the cycle:
118.Bd -literal -offset indent
119$ tsort dag
120tsort: cycle in data
121tsort: A
122tsort: B
123tsort: D
124D
125E
126A
127F
128B
129C
130.Ed
131.Pp
132Same as above but silencing the warning about the cycle:
133.Bd -literal -offset indent
134$ tsort -q dag
135D
136E
137A
138F
139B
140C
141.Ed
142.Sh SEE ALSO
143.Xr ar 1
144.Sh HISTORY
145The
146.Nm
147command appeared in
148.At v7 .
149This
150.Nm
151command and manual page are derived from sources contributed to Berkeley by
152.An Michael Rendell
153of Memorial University of Newfoundland.
154.Sh BUGS
155The
156.Nm
157utility does not recognize multibyte characters.
158