Cheat Sheet: Cutting Text with cut None Written by

Benjamin Cane on 2012/10/22

bencane.com /2012/10/22/cheat-sheet-cutting-text-with-cut
The cut command is a Unix/Linux tool used to literally cut text from files and output from other
commands. With the cut command a user can take text and output only certain parts of the line.
In my opinion cut is the most under recognized and utilized command in Linux/Unix. This is mostly due
to the fact that when most Sysadmins want to cut text from files or standard output many will reach for
AWK.
While AWK is a great tool for quick and dirty commands; I tend to reach for cut before AWK. The below
cheat sheet should show many ways to use cut with every day tasks.

Common Separated Values

Print the first field out of a CSV file
$ cut -d: -f1 passwd.bak
root
daemon

Print the first field out of CSV output from another command
$ head -1 /etc/passwd | cut -d: -f1
root

Print the first, second, and seventh field out of a CSV file
To change the field simply change the numbers after -f separated by a comma.
$ cut -d: -f1,2,7 passwd.bak
root:x:/bin/bash

Print text based on Spaces

$ cut -d -f3 /etc/motd
Ubuntu

Print the fourth field and everything after that from a command
This command is pretty handy if you wanted to make a script out of the past few commands you ran.

$ history | cut -d -f 4ping google.com

Print up to the 4th field

$ cut -d -f-4 /etc/motd
Welcome to Ubuntu 12.04

Print all fields between 5 and 8

$ cut -d: -f5-8 passwd
root:/root:/bin/bash

Output with a different delimiter (make a CSV)

Convert : to ,

$ cut --output-delimiter=, -d: -f1- passwd

root,x,0,0,root,/root,/bin/bash

Convert space to ,

$ ps -elf | cut --output-delimiter=, -d -f1F,S,UID,,,,,,,,PID,,PPID,,C,PRI,,NI,ADDR,SZ,WCHAN,,STIME,TTY,,,,,,,,,,TIME,CMD

4,S,root,,,,,,,,,1,,,,,0,,0,,80,,,0,,,6083,poll_s,19:07,?,,,,,,,,00:00:12,/sbin/init

Output only lines that have a delimiter

This command will only output lines that have a : (in our example), within the file tmpfile there are
multiple lines some with : and some without.

$ head tmpfile
Welcome to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (GNU/Linux 3.2.0-29-generic
x86_64)
73 packages can be updated.
10 updates are security updates.
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/bin/sh
bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/bin/sh
sys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/bin/sh
sync:x:4:65534:sync:/bin:/bin/sync
$ cut -s -d: -f1-4 tmpfile
root:x:0:0
daemon:x:1:1
bin:x:2:2
sys:x:3:3
sync:x:4:65534

Bytes
Print bytes 1 through 45
$ cut -b1-45 /etc/motd
Welcome to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (GNU/Linux
3.2.0-

Print everything but bytes 10 through 45

$ cut --complement -b10-45
/etc/motd
Welcome t29-generic x86_64)

Characters
Print characters 1 through 25
$ cut -c1-25 /etc/motd
Welcome to Ubuntu 12.04
L

Print everything but characters 10 through 25

$ cut --complement -c10-25 /etc/motd
Welcome tTS (GNU/Linux 3.2.0-29-generic
x86_64)