SYNOPSIS

tv_sort [--help] [--by-channel] [--output \s-1FILE\s0] [\s-1FILE\s0...]

DESCRIPTION

Read \s-1XMLTV\s0 data and write out the same data sorted in date order. Where stop times of programmes are missing, guess them from the start time of the next programme on the same channel. For the last programme of a channel, no stop time can be added.

Tv_sort also performs some sanity checks such as making sure no two programmes on the same channel overlap.

--output \s-1FILE\s0 write to \s-1FILE\s0 rather than standard output

--by-channel sort first by channel id, then by date within each

                channel.

--duplicate-error If the input contains the same programme more than once,

                     consider this as an error. Default is to silently
                     ignore duplicate entries.

The time sorting is by start time, then by stop time. Without --by-channel, if start times and stop times are equal then two programmes are sorted by internal channel id. With --by-channel, channel id is compared first and then times.

You can think of tv_sort as converting \s-1XMLTV\s0 data into a canonical form, useful for diffing two files.

EXAMPLES

At a typical Unix shell or Windows command prompt:

tv_sort <in.xml >out.xml
tv_sort in.xml --output out.xml

These are different ways of saying the same thing.

AUTHOR