Gnu/coreutils/The-cut-command
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The cut
Command
The next program we’ll look at is the cut
command. This program
cuts out columns or fields of input data. For example, we can tell it
to print just the login name and full name from the /etc/passwd
file. The /etc/passwd
file has seven fields, separated by
colons:
arnold:xyzzy:2076:10:Arnold D. Robbins:/home/arnold:/bin/bash
To get the first and fifth fields, we would use cut
like this:
$ cut -d: -f1,5 /etc/passwd -| root:Operator … -| arnold:Arnold D. Robbins -| miriam:Miriam A. Robbins …
With the -c
option, cut
will cut out specific characters
(i.e., columns) in the input lines. This is useful for input data
that has fixed width fields, and does not have a field separator. For
example, list the Monday dates for the current month:
$ cal | cut -c 3-5 -|Mo -| -| 6 -| 13 -| 20 -| 27