Cut (Unix)
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cut is a Unix command which is typically used to extract a certain range of characters from a line, usually from a file.
SYNTAX: cut [-b] [-c] [-f] list [-n] [-d delim] [-s] [file]
Flags which may be used include
- -b Bytes; a list following -b specifies a range of bytes which will be returned, e.g. cut -b1-66 would return the first 66 bytes of a line. NB If used in conjunction with -n, no multi-byte characters will be split. NNB. -b will only work on input lines of less than 1023 bytes
- -c Characters; a list following -b specifies a range of characters which will be returned, e.g. cut -c1-66 would return the first 66 characters of a line
- -f Specifies a field list, separated by a delimiter
- list A comma separated or blank separated list of integer denoted fields, incrementally ordered. The - indicator may be supplied as shorthand to allow inclusion of ranges of fields e.g. 4-6 for ranges 4 - 6 or 5 - as shorthand for field 5 to the end, etc.
- -n Used in combination with -b suppresses splits of multi-byte characters
- -d Delimiter; the character immediately following the -d option is the field delimiter for use in conjunction with the -f option; the default delimiter is tab. Space and other characters with special meanings within the context of the shell in use must be enquoted or escaped as necessary.
- -s Bypasses lines which contain no field delimiters when -f is specified, unless otherwise indicated.
- file The file (and accompanying path if necessary) to process as input. If no file is specified then standard input will be used.