cut -- selectively display fields or characters from input lines

cut selectively display fields or characters from input lines	Command

SYNOPSIS

cut -b list [-n] [file...]

cut -c list[file...]

cut -f list [-d char] [-s] [file...]

cut reads input from files and selectively copies sections of the input lines to the standard output. If you do not specify any files, or you specify a file named -, cut reads from the standard input.

Options

-b list: invokes byte position mode. After this comes a list of the byte positions you want to display. This list may contain multiple byte positions, separated by commas (,) or blanks, or ranges of positions separated by dashes (-); since the list must be one argument, shell quoting is necessary if blanks are used. You may combine these to select any set of byte positions.
-c list: invokes character position mode. After this comes a list of character positions to retain in the output. This list may contain multiple character positions, separated by commas (,) or blanks or ranges of positions separated by a single dash (-); since the list must be one argument, shell quoting is necessary if blanks are used. You may combine these to select any set of character positions.
-d char: specifies char as the character that separates fields in the input data; by default, this is the horizontal tab.
-f list: invokes field delimiter mode. After this comes a list of the fields you want to display. This list may contain multiple fields, separated by commas (,) or blanks or ranges of fields separated by a single dash (-); since the list must be one argument, shell quoting is necessary if blanks are used. You may combine these to select any set of fields.
-n: does not split characters. If the low byte in a selected range is not the first byte of a character, cut extends the range downward to include the entire character; if the high byte in a selected range is not the last byte of a character, cut limits the range to include only the last entire character before the high byte selected. If -n is selected, cut does not list ranges that do not encompass an entire character and these ranges do not cause an error.
-s: does not display lines that do not contain a field separator character. Normally, cut displays lines that do not contain a field separator character in their entirety.

EXAMPLES

This example takes the output from a ls -l command and displays only the permissions (that is, character positions 1-11) as well as the date, time, and file name information (that is, everything from the 56th character onward) for each file:

ls -l | cut -c 1-11,56-

DIAGNOSTICS

Possible exit status values are:

0

Successful completion.

1

Failure due to any of the following:

— cannot open the input file

— out of memory

2

Failure due to any of the following:

— an invalid command line argument

— you did not specify any of -b, -c or -f

— you omitted the list argument

— badly formed list argument

PORTABILITY

POSIX.2. x/OPEN Portability Guide 4.0.

cut

Command

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

Options

EXAMPLES

DIAGNOSTICS

PORTABILITY

SEE ALSO