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

-clist

Cut the column positions identified in list.

-dc

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

-flist

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