Add expansion item for sorting lists

[users/heiko/exim.git] / doc / doc-docbook / spec.xfpt

diff --git a/doc/doc-docbook/spec.xfpt b/doc/doc-docbook/spec.xfpt
index 2a52666f67ead87359331d2619809abb437e5c97..df63ad6a0bc5f05a208e198176b24ab9820a8204 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/doc-docbook/spec.xfpt
+++ b/doc/doc-docbook/spec.xfpt
@@ -6875,12 +6875,6 @@ ${lookup dnsdb{ptr=192.168.4.5}{$value}fail}
 If the data for a PTR record is not a syntactically valid IP address, it is not
 altered and nothing is added.
 
-.cindex "MX record" "in &(dnsdb)& lookup"
-.cindex "SRV record" "in &(dnsdb)& lookup"
-For an MX lookup, both the preference value and the host name are returned for
-each record, separated by a space. For an SRV lookup, the priority, weight,
-port, and host name are returned for each record, separated by spaces.
-
 For any record type, if multiple records are found (or, for A6 lookups, if a
 single record leads to multiple addresses), the data is returned as a
 concatenation, with newline as the default separator. The order, of course,
@@ -6893,6 +6887,16 @@ ${lookup dnsdb{>: a=host1.example}}
 It is permitted to specify a space as the separator character. Further
 white space is ignored.
 
+.cindex "MX record" "in &(dnsdb)& lookup"
+.cindex "SRV record" "in &(dnsdb)& lookup"
+For an MX lookup, both the preference value and the host name are returned for
+each record, separated by a space. For an SRV lookup, the priority, weight,
+port, and host name are returned for each record, separated by spaces.
+.new
+An alternate field separator can be specified using a comma after the main
+separator character, followed immediately by the field separator.
+.wen
+
 .cindex "TXT record" "in &(dnsdb)& lookup"
 .cindex "SPF record" "in &(dnsdb)& lookup"
 For TXT records with multiple items of data, only the first item is returned,
@@ -9694,6 +9698,37 @@ the regular expression from string expansion.
 
 
 
+.new
+.vitem &*${sort{*&<&'string'&>&*}{*&<&'comparator'&>&*}{*&<&'extractor'&>&*}}*&
+.cindex sorting a list
+.cindex list sorting
+After expansion, <&'string'&> is interpreted as a list, colon-separated by
+default, but the separator can be changed in the usual way.
+The <&'comparator'&> argument is interpreted as the operator
+of a two-argument expansion condition.
+The numeric operators plus ge, gt, le, lt (and ~i variants) are supported.
+The comparison should return true when applied to two values
+if the first value should sort before the second value.
+The <&'extractor'&> expansion is applied repeatedly to elements of the list,
+the element being placed in &$item$&,
+to give values for comparison.
+
+The item result is a sorted list,
+with the original list separator,
+of the list elements (in full) of the original.
+
+Examples:
+.code
+${sort{3:2:1:4}{<}{$item}}
+.endd
+sorts a list of numbers, and
+.code
+${sort {$lookup dnsdb{>:,,mx=example.com}} {<} {${listextract{1}{<,$item}}}}
+.endd
+will sort an MX lookup into priority order.
+.wen
+
+
 .vitem &*${substr{*&<&'string1'&>&*}{*&<&'string2'&>&*}{*&<&'string3'&>&*}}*&
 .cindex "&%substr%& expansion item"
 .cindex "substring extraction"