Reference: cut
Author: Daniel Gilly & the Staff of O'Reilly & Associates
Date: 1998-08-06T21:52:30Z

#

| Chapter 2 UNIX Commands |

## cut

    cut options [files]

Select a list of columns or fields from one or more `files`. Option -c or -f must be specified. `list` is a sequence of integers. Use a comma between separate values and a hyphen to specify a range (e.g., 1-10,15,20 or 50-). See also paste, join, and newform.

### Options

-c`list`

  Cut the column positions identified in `list`.

-d`c`

  Use with -f to specify field delimiter as character `c` (default is tab); special characters (e.g., a space) must be quoted.

-f`list`

  Cut the fields identified in `list`.

-s

  Use with -f to suppress lines without delimiters.

### Examples

Extract usernames and real names from /etc/passwd:

>     cut -d: -f1,5 /etc/passwd

Find out who is logged on, but list only login names:

>     who | cut -d" " -f1

Cut characters in the fourth column of `file`, and paste them back as the first column in the same file:

>     cut -c4 file | paste - file

Reference: cu |  | Reference: cxref