Provided by: rust-coreutils_0.0.14-3_amd64 
NAME
cut - manual page for cut 0.0.14
DESCRIPTION
cut 0.0.14 Prints specified byte or field columns from each line of stdin or the input
files
USAGE:
/build/rust-coreutils-mQkL0l/rust-coreutils-0.0.14/debian/tmp/usr/bin/cut [-d] [-s]
[-z] [--output-delimiter] ((-f|-b|-c) {{sequence}}) {{sourcefile}}+
OPTIONS:
-b, --bytes <LIST>
filter byte columns from the input source
-c, --characters <LIST>
alias for character mode
-d, --delimiter <DELIM>
specify the delimiter character that separates fields in the input source. Defaults
to Tab.
-f, --fields <LIST>
filter field columns from the input source
--complement
invert the filter - instead of displaying only the filtered columns, display all
but those columns
-s, --only-delimited
in field mode, only print lines which contain the delimiter
--output-delimiter <NEW_DELIM>
in field mode, replace the delimiter in output lines with this option's argument
-z, --zero-terminated
instead of filtering columns based on line, filter columns based on \0 (NULL
character)
-h, --help
Print help information
-V, --version
Print version information
Each call must specify a mode (what to use for columns), a sequence (which columns
to print), and provide a data source
Specifying a mode
Use --bytes (-b) or --characters (-c) to specify byte mode
Use --fields (-f) to specify field mode, where each line is broken into fields
identified by a delimiter character. For example for a typical CSV you could use
this in combination with setting comma as the delimiter
Specifying a sequence
A sequence is a group of 1 or more numbers or inclusive ranges separated by a
commas.
cut -f 2,5-7 some_file.txt will display the 2nd, 5th, 6th, and 7th field for each
source line
Ranges can extend to the end of the row by excluding the the second number
cut -f 3- some_file.txt will display the 3rd field and all fields after for each
source line
The first number of a range can be excluded, and this is effectively the same as
using 1 as the first number: it causes the range to begin at the first column.
Ranges can also display a single column
cut -f 1,3-5 some_file.txt will display the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th field for each
source line
The --complement option, when used, inverts the effect of the sequence
cut --complement -f 4-6 some_file.txt will display the every field but the 4th,
5th, and 6th
Specifying a data source
If no sourcefile arguments are specified, stdin is used as the source of lines to
print
If sourcefile arguments are specified, stdin is ignored and all files are read in
consecutively if a sourcefile is not successfully read, a warning will print to
stderr, and the eventual status code will be 1, but cut will continue to read
through proceeding sourcefiles
To print columns from both STDIN and a file argument, use - (dash) as a sourcefile
argument to represent stdin.
Field Mode options
The fields in each line are identified by a delimiter (separator)
Set the delimiter
Set the delimiter which separates fields in the file using the --delimiter (-d)
option. Setting the delimiter is optional. If not set, a default delimiter of Tab
will be used.
Optionally Filter based on delimiter
If the --only-delimited (-s) flag is provided, only lines which contain the
delimiter will be printed
Replace the delimiter
If the --output-delimiter option is provided, the argument used for it will replace
the delimiter character in each line printed. This is useful for transforming
tabular data - e.g. to convert a CSV to a TSV (tab-separated file)
Line endings
When the --zero-terminated (-z) option is used, cut sees \0 (null) as the 'line
ending' character (both for the purposes of reading lines and separating printed
lines) instead of \n (newline). This is useful for tabular data where some of the
cells may contain newlines
echo 'ab\0cd' | cut -z -c 1 will result in 'a\0c\0'
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.