cut
CUT(1) 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 [-w | -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 and field numbering start from 1.
The list option argument is a comma or whitespace separated set of numbers
and/or number ranges. Number ranges consist of a number, a dash (‘-’), and
a second number and select the columns or fields from the first number to
the second, inclusive. Numbers or number ranges may be preceded by a dash,
which selects all columns or fields from 1 to the last number. Numbers or
number ranges may be followed by a dash, which selects all columns or
fields 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 columns or fields 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
separated by a single occurrence of the field delimiter character.
-n Do not split multi-byte characters. Characters will only be output
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
specified, lines with no delimiters are passed through unmodified.
-w Use whitespace (spaces and tabs) as the delimiter. Consecutive
spaces and tabs count as one single field separator.
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”).
The -w flag is an extension to the specification.
HISTORY
A cut command appeared in AT&T System III UNIX.
macOS 12.1 August 3, 2017 macOS 12.1