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

NAME
     cut -- cut out selected 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 cuts out selected portions of each line (as specified by
     list) from each file and writes them to the standard output.  If no file
     arguments are specified, or a file argument is a single dash (`-'), cut
     reads 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 num-
     bers and/or number ranges.  Number ranges consist of a number, 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
     last 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, overlapping, and in any
     order.  If a field or column is specified multiple times, it will appear
     only once in the output.  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 delim as the field delimiter character instead of the tab
             character.

     -f list
             The list specifies fields, separated in the input by the field
             delimiter character (see the -d option.)  Output fields are sepa-
             rated by a single occurrence of the field delimiter character.

     -n      Do not split multi-byte characters.  Characters will only be out-
             put if at least one byte is selected, and, after a prefix of zero
             or more unselected bytes, the rest of the bytes that form the
             character are selected.

     -s      Suppress lines with no field delimiter characters.  Unless speci-
             fied, lines with no delimiters are passed through unmodified.

ENVIRONMENT
     The LANG, LC_ALL and LC_CTYPE environment variables affect the execution
     of cut as described in environ(7).

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

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

SEE ALSO
     colrm(1), 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.

BSD                            December 21, 2006                           BSD