Sorting large files

[Edward C. Jones]

A Python program of mine generates a large number of tuples of
ten integers each. I need to sort this collection of tuples. If
there weren't so many tuples, I could make a Python list of these
tuples and use sort(). Currently I write the tuples out to a file
in ASCII and use the UNIX sort command. Is there a faster way to
sort these tuples? Sort them in blocks using Python then merge
using the UNIX sort? Are there any faster sort programs (perhaps
in database systems)?