title: how to sort a file with multi-character delimiter using linux shell sort?
body: <p>I have a file, its delimiter is "|||".</p>
  
  <pre><code>abc|||123|||999|||5|||Just for you | Jim|||20
  cef|||7|||210|||6|||Go away | R&amp;B|||30
  mmm|||89|||320|||16|||Traveling Light|George Winston|||21
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The delimiter "|||" can't be replace with "|" or "||", because data itself may contain "|" or "||".</p>
  
  <p>Could someone tell me how to sort column 2 with delimiter "|||" ?</p>
  
  <p>The following method fails:</p>
  
  <pre><code>sort -t$'|||' -nrk2 a.txt &gt; b.txt
  sort: multi-character tab `|||'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Thank you!</p>