Cut (Unix)

Cut (Unix)

In computing, cut is a Unix command line utility which is used to extract sections from each line of input — usually from a file. It is currently part of the GNU coreutils package and the BSD Base System. It first appeared in AT&T System III UNIX in 1982.

Extraction of line segments can typically be done by bytes (-b), characters (-c), or fields (-f) separated by a delimiter (-d — the tab character by default). A range must be provided in each case which consists of one of N, N-M, N- (N to the end of the line), or -M (beginning of the line to M), where N and M are counted from 1 (there is no zeroth value). Since version 6, an error is thrown if you include a zeroth value. Prior to this the value was ignored and assumed to be 1.