Thanks for the offer.
Here is the coreutils TODO item that suggests some design goals:
sort: Add an ordering option -R that causes 'sort' to sort according
to a random permutation of the correct sort order. Also, add an
option --random-seed=SEED that causes 'sort' to use an arbitrary
string SEED to select which permutations to use, in a deterministic
manner: that is, if you sort a permutation of the same input file
with the same --random-seed=SEED option twice, you'll get the same
output. The default SEED is chosen at random, and contains enough
information to ensure that the output permutation is random.
suggestion from Feth AREZKI, Stephan Kasal, and Paul Eggert on 2003-07-17
The thread that starts here
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2003-07/msg00069.html
has some of the discussion that led to that.
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