cut

NAME

cut - remove sections from each line of files

SYNOPSIS

cut [OPTION]... [FILE]...

DESCRIPTION

Print selected parts of lines from each FILE to standard output.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

-b, --bytes=LIST
select only these bytes
-c, --characters=LIST
select only these characters
-d, --delimiter=DELIM
use DELIM instead of TAB for field delimiter
-f, --fields=LIST
select only these fields; also print any line that contains no delimiter character, unless the -s option is specified
-n
(ignored)
--complement
complement the set of selected bytes, characters or fields.
-s, --only-delimited
do not print lines not containing delimiters
--output-delimiter=STRING
use STRING as the output delimiter the default is to use the input delimiter
--help
display this help and exit
--version
output version information and exit

Use one, and only one of -b, -c or -f. Each LIST is made up of one range, or many ranges separated by commas. Selected input is written in the same order that it is read, and is written exactly once. Each range is one of:

N
N'th byte, character or field, counted from 1
N-
from N'th byte, character or field, to end of line
N-M
from N'th to M'th (included) byte, character or field
-M
from first to M'th (included) byte, character or field

With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

AUTHOR

Written by David Ihnat, David MacKenzie, and Jim Meyering.

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to <bug-coreutils@gnu.org>. Copyright © 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software. You may redistribute copies of it under the terms of the GNU General Public License <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO

The full documentation for cut is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and cut programs are properly installed at your site, the command
info cut

should give you access to the complete manual.