cut - remove sections from each line of files
$ cut option... [file...]
Print selected parts of lines from each FILE to standard output.
With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.
file
: File(s) to cut-b
--bytes=list
: Select only these bytes-f
--fields=list
: select only these fields; also print any line that contains no delimiter character-d
--delimiter=delim
: use delim
instead of tab
for field delimiter-s
, only-delimited
: suppress lines which don't contain any field delimiter characters$ cat example.txt
245:789 4567 M:4540 Admin 01:10:1980
535:763 4987 M:3476 Sales 11:04:1978
# Display first and third fields from file example.txt
$ cut example.txt -f 1,3
245:789 M:4540
535:763 M:3476
# Display first and third fields using `:` as a delimiter
$ cut example.txt -d ':' -f 1,3
245:4540 Admin 01
535:3476 Sales 11
# Display bytes at given position
$ echo "serenity is cool" | cut -b 5
n