cut (Unix)

The original Bell Labs version was written by Gottfried W. R. Luderer.{{Cite web|url=https://man.openbsd.org/cut.1|title=cut(1) - OpenBSD manual pages}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.tuhs.org/pipermail/tuhs/2020-January/019955.html|title=[TUHS] A portrait of cut(1)|date=15 January 2020 }} {{code|cut}} is part of the X/Open Portability Guide since issue 2 of 1987. It was inherited into the first version of POSIX.1 and the Single Unix Specification.{{man|cu|cut|SUS}} It first appeared in AT&T System III UNIX in 1982.{{man|1|cut|FreeBSD}}

The version of cut bundled in GNU coreutils was written by David M. Ihnat, David MacKenzie, and Jim Meyering.{{man|1|cut|ManKier}} The command is available as a separate package for Microsoft Windows as part of the UnxUtils collection of native Win32 ports of common GNU Unix-like utilities.{{Cite web|url=http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/|title=Native Win32 ports of some GNU utilities|website=unxutils.sourceforge.net}} The {{Mono|cut}} command has also been ported to the IBM i operating system.{{cite web |title=IBM System i Version 7.2 Programming Qshell |language=en |author=IBM |website=IBM |author-link=IBM |url=https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i_74/rzahz/rzahzpdf.pdf?view=kc |access-date=2020-09-05 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200918130823/https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i_74/rzahz/rzahzpdf.pdf?view=kc |archive-date=2020-09-18 }}

Assuming a file named "file" containing the lines:

foo:bar:baz:qux:quux

one:two:three:four:five:six:seven

alpha:beta:gamma:delta:epsilon:zeta:eta:theta:iota:kappa:lambda:mu

the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

To output the fourth through tenth characters of each line:

$ cut -c 4-10 file

:bar:ba

:two:th

ha:beta

quick

To output the fifth field through the end of the line of each line using the colon character as the field delimiter:

$ cut -d ":" -f 5- file

quux

five:six:seven

epsilon:zeta:eta:theta:iota:kappa:lambda:mu

the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

(note that because the colon character is not found in the last line the entire line is shown)

Option -d specifies a single character delimiter (in the example above it is a colon) which serves as field separator. Option -f which specifies range of fields included in the output (here fields range from five till the end). Option -d presupposes usage of option -f.

To output the third field of each line using space as the field delimiter:

$ cut -d " " -f 3 file

foo:bar:baz:qux:quux

one:two:three:four:five:six:seven

alpha:beta:gamma:delta:epsilon:zeta:eta:theta:iota:kappa:lambda:mu

brown

(Note that because the space character is not found in the first three lines these entire lines are shown.)

To separate two words having any delimiter:

$ line=process.processid

$ cut -d "." -f1 <<< $line

process

$ cut -d "." -f2 <<< $line

processid

cut [-b list] [-c list] [-f list] [-n] [-d delim] [-s] [file]

Flags which may be used include:

; {{mono|-b}} : Bytes; a list following {{mono|-b}} specifies a range of bytes which will be returned, e.g. {{code|cut -b1-66}} would return the first 66 bytes of a line. NB If used in conjunction with {{mono|-n}}, no multi-byte characters will be split. NNB. {{mono|-b}} will only work on input lines of less than 1023 bytes

; {{mono|-c}} : Characters; a list following {{mono|-c}} specifies a range of characters which will be returned, e.g. {{code|cut -c1-66}} would return the first 66 characters of a line

; {{mono|-f}} : Specifies a field list, separated by a delimiter

; list : A comma separated or blank separated list of integer denoted fields, incrementally ordered. The {{mono|-}} indicator may be supplied as shorthand to allow inclusion of ranges of fields e.g. {{mono|4-6}} for ranges 4–6 or {{mono|5-}} as shorthand for field 5 to the end, etc.

; {{mono|-n}} : Used in combination with -b suppresses splits of multi-byte characters

; {{mono|-d}} : Delimiter; the character immediately following the {{mono|-d}} option is the field delimiter for use in conjunction with the {{mono|-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.

; {{mono|-s}} : Bypasses lines which contain no field delimiters when {{mono|-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.

• List of Unix commands
• grep
• paste (Unix)
• sed
• awk

{{Reflist}}

{{Wikibooks|Guide to Unix|Commands}}

• {{man|cu|cut|SUS}}
• [http://www.softpanorama.org/Tools/cut.shtml Softpanorama cut page].
• [http://marmaro.de/docs/freiesmagazin/cut/cut.en.pdf Cut out selected fields of each line of a file] A portrait of cut(1) and its historical background.

{{Unix commands}}

{{Core Utilities commands}}

Category:Unix text processing utilities

Category:Standard Unix programs

Category:Unix SUS2008 utilities

Category:IBM i Qshell commands