1cut(1) User Commands cut(1)
2
6 cut - cut out selected fields of each line of a file
7
9 cut -b list [-n] [file]...
10 cut -c list [file]...
13 cut -f list [-d delim] [-s] [file]...
16
19 Use the cut utility to cut out columns from a table or fields from each
20 line of a file; in data base parlance, it implements the projection of
21 a relation. The fields as specified by list can be fixed length, that
22 is, character positions as on a punched card (-c option) or the length
23 can vary from line to line and be marked with a field delimiter charac‐
24 ter like TAB (-f option). cut can be used as a filter.
25 Either the -b, -c, or -f option must be specified.
28 Use grep(1) to make horizontal ``cuts'' (by context) through a file, or
31 paste(1) to put files together column-wise (that is, horizontally). To
32 reorder columns in a table, use cut and paste.
33
35 The following options are supported:
36 list A comma-separated or blank-character-separated list of
38 integer field numbers (in increasing order), with optional
39 − to indicate ranges (for instance, 1,4,7; 1−3,8; −5,10
40 (short for 1−5,10); or 3− (short for third through last
41 field)).
42 -b list The list following -b specifies byte positions (for
45 instance, -b1-72 would pass the first 72 bytes of each
46 line). When -b and -n are used together, list is adjusted
47 so that no multi-byte character is split.
48 -c list The list following -c specifies character positions (for
51 instance, -c1-72 would pass the first 72 characters of
52 each line).
53 -d delim The character following -d is the field delimiter (-f
56 option only). Default is tab. Space or other characters
57 with special meaning to the shell must be quoted. delim
58 can be a multi-byte character.
59 -f list The list following -f is a list of fields assumed to be
62 separated in the file by a delimiter character (see -d );
63 for instance, -f1,7 copies the first and seventh field
64 only. Lines with no field delimiters will be passed
65 through intact (useful for table subheadings), unless -s
66 is specified.
67 -n Do not split characters. When -b list and -n are used
70 together, list is adjusted so that no multi-byte character
71 is split.
72 -s Suppresses lines with no delimiter characters in case of
75 -f option. Unless specified, lines with no delimiters will
76 be passed through untouched.
77
80 The following operands are supported:
81 file A path name of an input file. If no file operands are speci‐
83 fied, or if a file operand is −, the standard input will be
84 used.
85
88 See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of cut when
89 encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte (2^31 bytes).
90
92 Example 1 Mapping user IDs
93 A mapping of user IDs to names follows:
96 example% cut -d: -f1,5 /etc/passwd
99 Example 2 Setting current login name
103 To set name to current login name:
106 example$ name=`who am i | cut -f1 -d' '`
109
113 See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables
114 that affect the execution of cut: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES,
115 and NLSPATH.
116
118 The following exit values are returned:
119 0 All input files were output successfully.
121 >0 An error occurred.
124
127 See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
128 ┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
133 │ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
134 ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
135 │Availability │SUNWcsu │
136 ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
137 │CSI │Enabled │
138 ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
139 │Interface Stability │Standard │
140 └─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
141
143 grep(1), paste(1), attributes(5), environ(5), largefile(5), stan‐
144 dards(5)
145
147 cut: -n may only be used with -b
148 cut: -d may only be used with -f
153 cut: -s may only be used with -f
158 cut: cannot open <file>
163 Either file cannot be read or does not exist. If multiple files
165 are present, processing continues.
166 cut: no delimiter specified
169 Missing delim on -d option.
171 cut: invalid delimiter
174 cut: no list specified
179 Missing list on -b, -c, or -f option.
181 cut: invalid range specifier
184 cut: too many ranges specified
189 cut: range must be increasing
194 cut: invalid character in range
199 cut: internal error processing input
204 cut: invalid multibyte character
209 cut: unable to allocate enough memory
214SunOS 5.11 29 Apr 1999 cut(1)