opendarwin man page for cut

CUT(1)							    BSD General Commands Manual 						    CUT(1)

NAME
     cut -- select 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 selects portions of each line (as specified by list) from each file and writes them to the standard output.  If no file argu-
     ments are specified, or a file argument is a single dash ('-'), cut reads from 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 increasing numbers and/or number ranges.  Number ranges consist of a num-
     ber, 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 first 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, over-
     lapping, and in any order.  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 the first character of delim as the field delimiter character instead of the tab character.

     -f list
	     The list specifies fields, delimited in the input by a single tab character.  Output fields are separated by a single tab character.

     -n      Do not split multi-byte characters.

     -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 if the -n option is specified.  Their effect is described in
     environ(7).

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

DIAGNOSTICS
     The cut utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

SEE ALSO
     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.

BUGS
     The -c option is a synonym for the -b option, which causes incorrect behaviour in locales that support multibyte characters.

     When operating on fields (-f option is specified), cut does not recognise multibyte characters, and the delim character is recognised in the
     middle of multibyte sequences.

BSD
								   June 6, 1993 							       BSD