cut command in Linux with Examples

cut is an Unix/Linux command used to cut a sections from each line of files. The default cut command print selected parts of lines from each FILE to standard output. In simple words cut command extract the slices of a line from file.

Syntax:

cut OPTION... [FILE]...

For the examples we are using /etc/passwd file. All the rows are stored in below format with colon (:) separated. We use -f to specify field number and -d for delimiter (separator).

cut command examples in Linux

1. Cut first field from all lines – Use -f option followed by the filed numbers to cut content from files. Where the filed separate is defined with -d delimiter.

   cut -d":" -f1 /etc/passwd 
   
   root
   bin
   daemon
   adm
   lp
   sync
   shutdown
   halt
   

   Also cut can be run on piped output of another command which makes it more flexible to use.

   cat /etc/passwd | cut -d":" -f1 
   

2. Select multiple fields from file – you can also specify multiple field names with the comma separated, like below example will show the 1’st, 2’nd and 7’th fields only.

   cut -d":" -f1,2,7 /etc/passwd 
   
   root:x:/bin/bash
   bin:x:/sbin/nologin
   daemon:x:/sbin/nologin
   adm:x:/sbin/nologin
   lp:x:/sbin/nologin
   sync:x:/bin/sync
   shutdown:x:/sbin/shutdown
   halt:x:/sbin/halt
   mail:x:/sbin/nologin
   uucp:x:/sbin/nologin
   

3. Define ranges with filed – Instead of defining all filed numbers, you can specify field ranges on command line. A range is defined with hyphen - .

   cut -d":" -f1-4 /etc/passwd 
   cut -d":" -f3-5 /etc/passwd 
   cut -d":" -f2-4,6,10 /etc/passwd 
   

   Here:

   • First command will select 1’st, 2’nd,3’rd and 4’th fields.
   • Second command will select 3’rd, 4’th and 5’th fields.
   • Last command will show 2’nd, 3’rd, 4’th, 6’th and 10’th fields.
4. Select all fields except one – To get values of all columns except one use following command. For example if we need to select all columns but not 6.

   cut -d":" --complement -s -f6 /etc/passwd 
   

5. Selecting single character’s from file – Instead of selecting fields, you can also cut characters from file using -c parameter followed by numbers.

   For example to cut first character from each line, type:

   cut -c1 /etc/passwd 
   
   r
   b
   d
   a
   l
   s
   s
   

   Similarly fields we can also specify multiple comma separated characters or range of characters.

   cut -c1,2,3,6,7 /etc/passwd 
   cut -c1-3,6,7 /etc/passwd 
   

Conclusion

In this tutorial you have learned about uses of cut command in Linux with useful examples.