Bash true numerical order

Question

How can I order files in a directory by their true numeric order.

file1.txt
file2.txt
file11.txt
...

I think it\'s called : Natural Order

Answer 1

For this particular list of files, sort numerically starting at the fifth character of the first field.

$ ls file*|sort -k1.5n
file1
file2
file11
file12

Answer 2

If all filenames are fileSOMENUMBER.txt, try this:

ls -1|sed 's:^[^0-9]*\([0-9]*\).*$:\1:g'|sort -n|sed 's:^\(.*\)$:file\1.txt:g'

Answer 3

Use the -v option:

ls -v file*
file1
file2
file11
file12

Another option may be using sort -V, assuming that one is available on your platform:

ls file* |sort -V