cut(1) [mojave man page]
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 numbers 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 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. 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
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cut(1) User Commands cut(1) NAME
cut - cut out selected fields of each line of a file SYNOPSIS
cut -b list [-n] [file]... cut -c list [file]... cut -f list [-d delim] [-s] [file]... DESCRIPTION
Use the cut utility to cut out columns from a table or fields from each line of a file; in data base parlance, it implements the projection of a relation. The fields as specified by list can be fixed length, that is, character positions as on a punched card (-c option) or the length can vary from line to line and be marked with a field delimiter character like TAB (-f option). cut can be used as a filter. Either the -b, -c, or -f option must be specified. Use grep(1) to make horizontal ``cuts'' (by context) through a file, or paste(1) to put files together column-wise (that is, horizontally). To reorder columns in a table, use cut and paste. OPTIONS
The following options are supported: list A comma-separated or blank-character-separated list of integer field numbers (in increasing order), with optional - to indi- cate ranges (for instance, 1,4,7; 1-3,8; -5,10 (short for 1-5,10); or 3- (short for third through last field)). -b list The list following -b specifies byte positions (for instance, -b1-72 would pass the first 72 bytes of each line). When -b and -n are used together, list is adjusted so that no multi-byte character is split. -c list The list following -c specifies character positions (for instance, -c1-72 would pass the first 72 characters of each line). -d delim The character following -d is the field delimiter (-f option only). Default is tab. Space or other characters with special meaning to the shell must be quoted. delim can be a multi-byte character. -f list The list following -f is a list of fields assumed to be separated in the file by a delimiter character (see -d ); for instance, -f1,7 copies the first and seventh field only. Lines with no field delimiters will be passed through intact (useful for table subheadings), unless -s is specified. -n Do not split characters. When -b list and -n are used together, list is adjusted so that no multi-byte character is split. -s Suppresses lines with no delimiter characters in case of -f option. Unless specified, lines with no delimiters will be passed through untouched. OPERANDS
The following operands are supported: file A path name of an input file. If no file operands are specified, or if a file operand is -, the standard input will be used. USAGE
See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of cut when encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte (2^31 bytes). EXAMPLES
Example 1 Mapping user IDs A mapping of user IDs to names follows: example% cut -d: -f1,5 /etc/passwd Example 2 Setting current login name To set name to current login name: example$ name=`who am i | cut -f1 -d' '` ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables that affect the execution of cut: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_MES- SAGES, and NLSPATH. EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned: 0 All input files were output successfully. >0 An error occurred. ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes: +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Availability |SUNWcsu | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |CSI |Enabled | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Interface Stability |Standard | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ SEE ALSO
grep(1), paste(1), attributes(5), environ(5), largefile(5), standards(5) DIAGNOSTICS
cut: -n may only be used with -b cut: -d may only be used with -f cut: -s may only be used with -f cut: cannot open <file> Either file cannot be read or does not exist. If multiple files are present, processing continues. cut: no delimiter specified Missing delim on -d option. cut: invalid delimiter cut: no list specified Missing list on -b, -c, or -f option. cut: invalid range specifier cut: too many ranges specified cut: range must be increasing cut: invalid character in range cut: internal error processing input cut: invalid multibyte character cut: unable to allocate enough memory SunOS 5.11 29 Apr 1999 cut(1)