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I want to sort all the processes by Memory

me@host:~$ ps au | sort -r -k 5 | head -10 | sed "s/$USER/me/g"

USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND

me    2312  0.0  0.1 958148  5568 tty2     Sl+  Mar11   0:00 /usr/lib/evolution/evolution-data-server/evolution-alarm-notify

me    2232  0.0  0.2 957248  7912 tty2     Sl+  Mar11   0:01 /usr/lib/gnome-settings-daemon/gsd-media-keys

me    2292  0.0  0.3 949556 11924 tty2     Sl+  Mar11   0:15 nautilus-desktop

me    3308  0.0  0.0 918708  2596 pts/0    Sl   Mar11   0:04 /home/me/.lantern/bin/lantern

me    4728  0.1  0.5 872048 21648 tty2     Sl+  Mar11   1:00 gnome-control-center

me    2223  0.0  0.2 833712  8656 tty2     Sl+  Mar11   0:04 /usr/lib/gnome-settings-daemon/gsd-color

me   14638  0.0  0.2  83136 10400 pts/0    S+   13:25   0:00 aria2c https://repo.anaconda.com/archive/Anaconda3-2018.12-MacOSX-x86_64.pkg

me    1799  1.8  1.2 745516 49592 tty2     Sl+  Mar11  17:36 /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg vt2 -displayfd 3 -auth /run/user/1000/gdm/Xauthority -background none -noreset -keeptty -verbose 3

me    3587  0.0  0.4 736908 16952 tty2     Sl+  Mar11   0:32 /opt/google/chrome/chrome --type=renderer --field-trial-handle=9889395698754715859,17788752790984658481,131072 --service-pipe-token=121279454012343526 --lang=en-US --enable-crash-reporter=41f7a813-8595-4f48-8ba9-5b4493af761c, --enable-offline-auto-reload --enable-offline-auto-reload-visible-only --num-raster-threads=2 --enable-main-frame-before-activation --service-request-channel-token=121279454012343526 --renderer-client-id=22 --no-v8-untrusted-code-mitigations --shared-files=v8_context_snapshot_data:100,v8_natives_data:101

Observe the 5th field, 83136 is judged greater than 745515

I add '--numeric-sort'

me@host:~$ ps au | sort -rn -k 5 | head -10 | sed "s/$USER/me/g"

me    2048  1.3  3.6 3324476 143932 tty2   Sl+  Mar11  12:30 /usr/bin/gnome-shell

me    3323  0.7  5.3 2110972 210872 pts/0  Sl   Mar11   6:54 /home/me/.lantern/bin/lantern

me    3217  0.1  3.1 1834724 124076 tty2   Sl+  Mar11   1:02 /opt/google/chrome/chrome --type=renderer --field-trial-handle=9889395698754715859,17788752790984658481,131072 --service-pipe-token=14274241015953851945 --lang=en-US --enable-crash-reporter=41f7a813-8595-4f48-8ba9-5b4493af761c, --extension-process --enable-offline-auto-reload --enable-offline-auto-reload-visible-only --num-raster-threads=2 --enable-main-frame-before-activation --service-request-channel-token=14274241015953851945 --renderer-client-id=5 --no-v8-untrusted-code-mitigations --shared-files=v8_context_snapshot_data:100,v8_natives_data:101

me    2932  1.0  4.3 1463616 172764 tty2   SLl+ Mar11   9:54 /opt/google/chrome/chrome

me    2700  0.0  2.3 1263084 93984 tty2    SLl+ Mar11   0:14 /usr/bin/gnome-software --gapplication-service

me    2312  0.0  0.1 958148  5568 tty2     Sl+  Mar11   0:00 /usr/lib/evolution/evolution-data-server/evolution-alarm-notify

me    2232  0.0  0.1 957248  7632 tty2     Sl+  Mar11   0:01 /usr/lib/gnome-settings-daemon/gsd-media-keys

me    2292  0.0  0.6 949556 26132 tty2     Sl+  Mar11   0:15 nautilus-desktop

me    3308  0.0  0.0 918708  2584 pts/0    Sl   Mar11   0:04 /home/me/.lantern/bin/lantern

me    4728  0.1  0.5 872048 21588 tty2     Sl+  Mar11   1:00 gnome-control-center

but the leading captain description disappears

How could I sort the output but instantly allow the first row take the lead?

The 'ps' command supports sorting natively. You don't need to resort to piping it to the separate 'sort' command which is removing the header.

To sort on resident memory,

ps au --sort -rss | head -10

or for virtual memory,

ps au --sort -vsz | head -10

I believe the second option will match what you were trying to achieve.

You could do

ps au | (read -r; printf "%sn" "$REPLY"; sort -r --numeric-sort -k 5)| head -10 | sed "s/$USER/me/g

You can find more answers here