xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/tsort/tsort.1 (revision dd41de95a84d979615a2ef11df6850622bf6184e)
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31.\"     @(#)tsort.1	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/1/94
32.\" $FreeBSD$
33.\"
34.Dd August 30, 2020
35.Dt TSORT 1
36.Os
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm tsort
39.Nd topological sort of a directed graph
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.Nm
42.Op Fl dlq
43.Op Ar file
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45The
46.Nm
47utility takes a list of pairs of node names representing directed arcs in
48a graph and prints the nodes in topological order on standard output.
49Input is taken from the named
50.Ar file ,
51or from standard input if no file
52is given.
53.Pp
54There must be an even number of nodes in the input.
55Node names specified on the same line should be white space separated.
56.Pp
57Presence of a node in a graph can be represented by an arc from the node
58to itself.
59This is useful when a node is not connected to any other nodes.
60.Pp
61If the graph contains a cycle (and therefore cannot be properly sorted),
62one of the arcs in the cycle is ignored and the sort continues.
63Cycles are reported on standard error.
64.Pp
65The options are as follows:
66.Bl -tag -width indent
67.It Fl d
68Turn on debugging.
69.It Fl l
70Search for and display the longest cycle.
71Can take a very long time.
72.It Fl q
73Do not display informational messages about cycles.
74This is primarily
75intended for building libraries, where optimal ordering is not critical,
76and cycles occur often.
77.El
78.Sh EXAMPLES
79Assuming a file named
80.Pa dag
81with the following contents representing a directed acyclic graph:
82.Bd -literal -offset indent
83A B
84A F
85B C
86B D
87D E
88.Ed
89.Pp
90Sort the nodes of the graph:
91.Bd -literal -offset indent
92$ tsort dag
93A
94F
95B
96D
97C
98E
99.Ed
100.Pp
101White spaces and new line characters are considered equal.
102This file for example is considered equal to the one we defined before:
103.Bd -literal -offset indent
104$ cat dga
105A B A F B C B D D E
106.Ed
107.Pp
108Assume we add a new directed arc from D to A creating a cycle:
109.Bd -literal -offset indent
110A B
111A F
112B C
113B D
114D E
115D A
116.Ed
117.Pp
118Ordering the graph detects the cycle:
119.Bd -literal -offset indent
120$ tsort dag
121tsort: cycle in data
122tsort: A
123tsort: B
124tsort: D
125D
126E
127A
128F
129B
130C
131.Ed
132.Pp
133Same as above but silencing the warning about the cycle:
134.Bd -literal -offset indent
135$ tsort -q dag
136D
137E
138A
139F
140B
141C
142.Ed
143.Sh SEE ALSO
144.Xr ar 1
145.Sh HISTORY
146The
147.Nm
148command appeared in
149.At v7 .
150This
151.Nm
152command and manual page are derived from sources contributed to Berkeley by
153.An Michael Rendell
154of Memorial University of Newfoundland.
155.Sh BUGS
156The
157.Nm
158utility does not recognize multibyte characters.
159