Hello,
coreutils is GNU software, or the combination of a few gnu packages. You can find it at
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/ There is a new coreutils there (5.0) dated April 2, 2003 in the directory. After seeing your email, I downloaded, compiled it and gave it a try with your example against maillog and it worked ok. Maybe you could just replace Redhat's /bin/sort with one made from source if necessary. You could also notify the Redhat folks and maybe they would release the 5.0 coreutils or patch whatever is ailing the sort command.
Russell Kaiser kaiser is at techisdead.net