sorting a BIG file (solved)

[Doug Gwyn]

In article <MJS.91Apr27192345 at behemoth.genetics.wisc.edu> mjs at behemoth.genetics.wisc.edu (Mike Schmelzer) writes:
>sort(1) tries to use /usr/tmp (which is on /) instead
>of /tmp (which I had doinked around with so that it was
>on /mnt/bigpartition). Why sort does is is a mystery to
>me. Fortunately, sort takes a -T argument, which allows
>you to specify where to put sort's scratchfiles.

/usr/tmp is the usual default directory for temporary files, and is
normally expected to have more space in it than /tmp.  /tmp should
be used only by critical system software, not for potentially huge
user temporary files (such as are created during merge sorting).

You might check whether or not your utilities honor the TMPDIR
environment variable.