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Table of Contents
BASH - cut
The cut command allows cutting of sections based on byte positions, characters, or fields separated by a delimiter like the ‘-‘ or ‘:’ characters.
cut - remove sections from each line of files.
cut can return section based on number of bytes (-b), characters (-c), or fields (-f) when fields are separated by a delimiter(-d).
Default delimiter is tab.
Cut a single character
cut -c 3 abcdef
returns:
c
Cut a range of characters
A range must be provided in each case which consists of one of N, N-M, N-(N to last) or -M (first to M)
cut -c 2-4 abcdef
Press CTRL+D to stop inputting
returns:
bcd
Cut a variety of characters
cut -c 2,4,7 alongtext
returns:
lne
Cut characters up to a specific position
cut -c -2 abcdef
returns:
ab
Cut characters from a specific position
cut -c 2- abcdef
returns:
bcdef
Cut various characters
cut -c 1,6-9,16- alongtextwithnospaces
returns:
atextspaces
Cut fields from a string, using a delimiter
cut -f 2- -d ':' 23:34:45:56
NOTE: -d specifies delimiter
returns:
34:45:56
Cut fields from a string, without specifying a delimiter
cut -f 2 er rt fg wd ji
returns:
er rt fg wd ji
NOTE: cut didn't find the delimiter (default is tab) so returns whole line.
cut -f 2 -s er rt fg wd ji
NOTE: cut wont print as -s flag is used to prevent printing when delimiter not found.
Cut fields from a file, using a delimiter
cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd >users.txt