Try TAB=`echo -en "\t"` It worked for me. Funny that sort isn't better prepared for this though. -Steve On Fri, 20 Feb 2004, Tom Penney wrote: > [tomp at lotsa sort]$ TAB=`echo -e "\t"` > [tomp at lotsa sort]$ sort -t "$TAB" -k 2 tab.txt > sorted.txt > [tomp at lotsa sort]$ cat sorted.txt > 4 apple > 1 cherry > 3 grape > 5 mango > 2 orange > strayf at freeshell.org SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list