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CUT(1P)			   POSIX Programmer's Manual		       CUT(1P)

PROLOG
       This  manual  page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux
       implementation of this interface may differ (consult the	 corresponding
       Linux  manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
       not be implemented on Linux.

NAME
       cut - cut out selected fields of each line of a file

SYNOPSIS
       cut -b list [-n] [file ...]

       cut -c list [file ...]

       cut -f list [-d delim][-s][file ...]

DESCRIPTION
       The cut utility shall cut out bytes  (  -b  option),  characters	 (  -c
       option),	 or  character-delimited fields ( -f option) from each line in
       one or more files, concatenate them, and write them to standard output.

OPTIONS
       The cut utility	shall  conform	to  the	 Base  Definitions  volume  of
       IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.

       The application shall ensure that the option-argument list (see options
       -b, -c, and -f below) is a comma-separated  list	 or  <blank>-separated
       list  of positive numbers and ranges. Ranges can be in three forms. The
       first is two positive numbers separated by a hyphen ( low- high), which
       represents  all	fields from the first number to the second number. The
       second is a positive number preceded by a hyphen (- high), which repre‐
       sents  all  fields  from	 field number 1 to that number. The third is a
       positive number followed by a hyphen (  low-),  which  represents  that
       number  to  the	last  field,  inclusive.  The  elements in list can be
       repeated, can overlap, and can be  specified  in	 any  order,  but  the
       bytes,  characters, or fields selected shall be written in the order of
       the input data.	If an element appears in the selection list more  than
       once, it shall be written exactly once.

       The following options shall be supported:

       -b  list
	      Cut based on a list of bytes. Each selected byte shall be output
	      unless the -n option is also specified. It shall not be an error
	      to select bytes not present in the input line.

       -c  list
	      Cut based on a list of characters. Each selected character shall
	      be output. It shall not be an error  to  select  characters  not
	      present in the input line.

       -d  delim
	      Set  the	field delimiter to the character delim. The default is
	      the <tab>.

       -f  list
	      Cut based on a list of fields, assumed to be  separated  in  the
	      file  by	a  delimiter  character	 (see -d). Each selected field
	      shall be output. Output fields shall be separated	 by  a	single
	      occurrence of the field delimiter character. Lines with no field
	      delimiters shall be passed through intact, unless -s  is	speci‐
	      fied.  It	 shall not be an error to select fields not present in
	      the input line.

       -n     Do not split characters. When specified with the -b option, each
	      element in list of the form low- high (hyphen-separated numbers)
	      shall be modified as follows:

	       * If the byte selected by low is not the first byte of a	 char‐
		 acter,	 low  shall be decremented to select the first byte of
		 the  character	 originally  selected  by  low.	 If  the  byte
		 selected  by  high  is not the last byte of a character, high
		 shall be decremented to select the last byte of the character
		 prior	to  the character originally selected by high, or zero
		 if there is no prior character. If the resulting  range  ele‐
		 ment  has  high  equal	 to zero or low greater than high, the
		 list element shall be dropped from list for that  input  line
		 without causing an error.

       Each  element  in  list of the form low- shall be treated as above with
       high set to the number of bytes in the current line, not including  the
       terminating <newline>. Each element in list of the form - high shall be
       treated as above with low set to 1. Each element in list	 of  the  form
       num (a single number) shall be treated as above with low set to num and
       high set to num.

       -s     Suppress lines with no delimiter characters, when used with  the
	      -f  option.  Unless specified, lines with no delimiters shall be
	      passed through untouched.

OPERANDS
       The following operand shall be supported:

       file   A pathname of an input file. If no file operands are  specified,
	      or if a file operand is '-', the standard input shall be used.

STDIN
       The  standard  input  shall be used only if no file operands are speci‐
       fied, or if a file operand is '-' .  See the INPUT FILES section.

INPUT FILES
       The input files shall be text files, except that line lengths shall  be
       unlimited.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       The following environment variables shall affect the execution of cut:

       LANG   Provide  a  default value for the internationalization variables
	      that are unset or null. (See  the	 Base  Definitions  volume  of
	      IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,  Section  8.2,  Internationalization Vari‐
	      ables for the precedence of internationalization variables  used
	      to determine the values of locale categories.)

       LC_ALL If  set  to a non-empty string value, override the values of all
	      the other internationalization variables.

       LC_CTYPE
	      Determine the locale for	the  interpretation  of	 sequences  of
	      bytes  of	 text  data as characters (for example, single-byte as
	      opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input files).

       LC_MESSAGES
	      Determine the locale that should be used to  affect  the	format
	      and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.

       NLSPATH
	      Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of
	      LC_MESSAGES .

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
       Default.

STDOUT
       The cut utility output shall be a concatenation of the selected	bytes,
       characters, or fields (one of the following):

	      "%s\n", <concatenation of bytes>

	      "%s\n", <concatenation of characters>

	      "%s\n", <concatenation of fields and field delimiters>

STDERR
       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES
       None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
       None.

EXIT STATUS
       The following exit values shall be returned:

	0     All input files were output successfully.

       >0     An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
       Default.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE
       Earlier	versions  of  the  cut	utility worked in an environment where
       bytes and characters were considered equivalent (modulo <backspace> and
       <tab>  processing  in  some implementations).  In the extended world of
       multi-byte characters, the new -b option has been added. The -n	option
       (used  with -b) allows it to be used to act on bytes rounded to charac‐
       ter boundaries. The algorithm specified for -n guarantees that:

	      cut -b 1-500 -n file > file1
	      cut -b 501- -n file > file2

       ends up with all the characters in file appearing exactly once in file1
       or  file2.  (There is, however, a <newline> in both file1 and file2 for
       each <newline> in file.)

EXAMPLES
       Examples of the option qualifier list:

       1,4,7  Select the first, fourth,	 and  seventh  bytes,  characters,  or
	      fields and field delimiters.

       1-3,8  Equivalent to 1,2,3,8.

       -5,10  Equivalent to 1,2,3,4,5,10.

       3-     Equivalent to third to last, inclusive.

       The  low- high forms are not always equivalent when used with -b and -n
       and multi-byte characters; see the description of -n.

       The following command:

	      cut -d : -f 1,6 /etc/passwd

       reads the System V password file (user database) and produces lines  of
       the form:

	      <user ID>:<home directory>

       Most  utilities	in  this  volume  of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 work on text
       files. The cut utility can be used to turn files	 with  arbitrary  line
       lengths	into  a	 set of text files containing the same data. The paste
       utility can be used to create (or recreate) files with  arbitrary  line
       lengths. For example, if file contains long lines:

	      cut -b 1-500 -n file > file1
	      cut -b 501- -n file > file2

       creates	file1  (a text file) with lines no longer than 500 bytes (plus
       the <newline>) and file2 that contains the remainder of the  data  from
       file.  (Note  that  file2 is not a text file if there are lines in file
       that are longer than 500 + {LINE_MAX} bytes.) The original file can  be
       recreated from file1 and file2 using the command:

	      paste -d "\0" file1 file2 > file

RATIONALE
       Some  historical implementations do not count <backspace>s in determin‐
       ing character counts with the -c option. This may be useful  for	 using
       cut  for	 processing  nroff output.  It was deliberately decided not to
       have the -c option treat either <backspace>s or <tab>s in  any  special
       fashion. The fold utility does treat these characters specially.

       Unlike  other  utilities,  some	historical implementations of cut exit
       after not finding an input file, rather than continuing to process  the
       remaining  file operands. This behavior is prohibited by this volume of
       IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, where only the exit status is  affected  by  this
       problem.

       The  behavior  of  cut  when  provided  with  either mutually-exclusive
       options or options that do not work logically together has been	delib‐
       erately left unspecified in favor of global wording in Utility Descrip‐
       tion Defaults .

       The OPTIONS section was changed in response to IEEE PASC Interpretation
       1003.2  #149.  The  change  represents historical practice on all known
       systems. The original standard was ambiguous on the nature of the  out‐
       put.

       The  list option-arguments are historically used to select the portions
       of the line to be written, but do not affect the order of the data. For
       example:

	      echo abcdefghi | cut -c6,2,4-7,1

       yields "abdefg" .

       A proposal to enhance cut with the following option:

       -o     Preserve	the  selected  field order. When this option is speci‐
	      fied, each byte, character, or field (or ranges of  such)	 shall
	      be  written  in the order specified by the list option-argument,
	      even if this requires multiple outputs of the same bytes,	 char‐
	      acters, or fields.

       was  rejected  because this type of enhancement is outside the scope of
       the IEEE P1003.2b draft standard.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.

SEE ALSO
       grep, paste, Parameters and Variables

COPYRIGHT
       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in  electronic  form
       from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
       -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX),	The  Open  Group  Base
       Specifications  Issue  6,  Copyright  (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of
       Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open  Group.  In  the
       event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
       The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group  Standard
       is  the	referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
       at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

IEEE/The Open Group		     2003			       CUT(1P)
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