cut(1) BSD General Commands Manual cut(1)
NAME
cut -- cut out selected portions of each line of a file
SYNOPSIS
cut -b list [-n] [file ...]
cut -c list [file ...]
cut -f list [-d delim] [-s] [file ...]
DESCRIPTION
The cut utility cuts out selected portions of each line (as specified by
list) from each file and writes them to the standard output. If no file
arguments are specified, or a file argument is a single dash (`-'), cut
reads from the standard input. The items specified by list can be in
terms of column position or in terms of fields delimited by a special
character. Column numbering starts from 1.
The list option argument is a comma or whitespace separated set of num-
bers and/or number ranges. Number ranges consist of a number, a dash
(`-'), and a second number and select the fields or columns from the
first number to the second, inclusive. Numbers or number ranges may be
preceded by a dash, which selects all fields or columns from 1 to the
last number. Numbers or number ranges may be followed by a dash, which
selects all fields or columns from the last number to the end of the
line. Numbers and number ranges may be repeated, overlapping, and in any
order. If a field or column is specified multiple times, it will appear
only once in the output. It is not an error to select fields or columns
not present in the input line.
The options are as follows:
-b list
The list specifies byte positions.
-c list
The list specifies character positions.
-d delim
Use delim as the field delimiter character instead of the tab
character.
-f list
The list specifies fields, separated in the input by the field
delimiter character (see the -d option.) Output fields are sepa-
rated by a single occurrence of the field delimiter character.
-n Do not split multi-byte characters. Characters will only be out-
put if at least one byte is selected, and, after a prefix of zero
or more unselected bytes, the rest of the bytes that form the
character are selected.
-s Suppress lines with no field delimiter characters. Unless speci-
fied, lines with no delimiters are passed through unmodified.
ENVIRONMENT
The LANG, LC_ALL and LC_CTYPE environment variables affect the execution
of cut as described in environ(7).
EXIT STATUS
The cut utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
EXAMPLES
Extract users' login names and shells from the system passwd(5) file as
``name:shell'' pairs:
cut -d : -f 1,7 /etc/passwd
Show the names and login times of the currently logged in users:
who | cut -c 1-16,26-38
SEE ALSO
colrm(1), paste(1)
STANDARDS
The cut utility conforms to IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 (``POSIX.2'').
HISTORY
A cut command appeared in AT&T System III UNIX.
BSD December 21, 2006 BSD
Mac OS X 10.6 - Generated Thu Sep 17 20:07:25 CDT 2009