xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/tsort/tsort.1 (revision ea825d02749f382c3f7e17f28247f20a48733eab)
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31.\"     @(#)tsort.1	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/1/94
32.\" $FreeBSD$
33.\"
34.Dd December 27, 2006
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 SEE ALSO
79.Xr ar 1
80.Sh HISTORY
81The
82.Nm
83command appeared in
84.At v7 .
85This
86.Nm
87command and manual page are derived from sources contributed to Berkeley by
88.An Michael Rendell
89of Memorial University of Newfoundland.
90.Sh BUGS
91The
92.Nm
93utility does not recognize multibyte characters.
94