Sys-Admin

Introduction

cut

cut -d ' ' -f 1 userinfo.txt

Options -d - delimiter. -f - field. -c - character.

• Specify Multiple Fields:
  • cut -d ' ' -f 1,3 file.txt: Extracts the 1st and 3rd fields.
• Range of Fields:
  • cut -d ' ' -f 1-3 file.txt: Extracts fields 1 to 3.
  • cut -d ' ' -f 2- file.txt: Extracts from field 2 to the end.
• Use Different Delimiters:
  • cut -d ':' -f 1 file.txt: Specifies colon (:) as the delimiter.
  • cut -d ',' -f 2 file.txt: Specifies comma (,) as the delimiter.
• Cut by Character Position:
  • cut -c 1-5 file.txt: Extracts the first 5 characters from each line.
  • cut -c 3- file.txt: Extracts from the 3rd character to the end.

• Complement Option:
  cut -d ' ' -f 2 --complement file.txt: Displays all fields except the 2nd field.

• Cut from Standard Input:
  echo "one two three" | cut -d ' ' -f 2: Extracts the 2nd field from a string passed through echo.

• Suppress Delimiter in Output:
  cut -d ':' -f 1 --output-delimiter=' ' file.txt: Changes the output delimiter to a space (useful when extracting fields from colon-separated files but need a different delimiter in the result).

• Cut by Byte:
  cut -b 1-3 file.txt: Extracts the first 3 bytes (this is useful for fixed-width data, but it can behave differently with multi-byte characters).