CUT(1)                      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 [-w | -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 and field numbering start from 1.

     The list option argument is a comma or whitespace separated set of
     numbers and/or number ranges.  Number ranges consist of a number, a dash
     (‘-’), and a second number and select the columns or fields from the
     first number to the second, inclusive.  Numbers or number ranges may be
     preceded by a dash, which selects all columns or fields from 1 to the
     last number.  Numbers or number ranges may be followed by a dash, which
     selects all columns or fields 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 columns or fields
     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
             separated by a single occurrence of the field delimiter
             character.

     -n      Do not split multi-byte characters.  Characters will only be
             output 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
             specified, lines with no delimiters are passed through
             unmodified.

     -w      Use whitespace (spaces and tabs) as the delimiter.  Consecutive
             spaces and tabs count as one single field separator.

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”).

     The -w flag is an extension to the specification.

HISTORY
     A cut command appeared in AT&T System III UNIX.

macOS 15.2                      August 3, 2017                      macOS 15.2