cut Command - Remove Sections from Each Line of Files

The cut command is used to extract sections from each line of input, usually from text files or streams. It is commonly used to extract columns or fields from delimited data.

Syntax

cut [options] [file...]

Examples

cut -d ':' -f 1 /etc/passwd

echo "a,b,c" | cut -d ',' -f 2

cut -c 1-5 file.txt

Notes

• Use -d to specify a delimiter and -f to specify fields.
• Use -c to specify character positions.
• Can be combined with cat and grep for advanced text processing.