The cut command

The next program we'll look at is the cut command. This program cuts out columns or fields of input data. For example, we can tell it to print just the login name and full name from the `/etc/passwd file'. The `/etc/passwd' file has seven fields, separated by colons:

arnold:xyzzy:2076:10:Arnold D. Robbins:/home/arnold:/bin/ksh

To get the first and fifth fields, we would use cut like this:

$ cut -d: -f1,5 /etc/passwd root:Operator ... arnold:Arnold D. Robbins miriam:Miriam A. Robbins ...

With the `-c' option, cut will cut out specific characters (i.e., columns) in the input lines. This command looks like it might be useful for data filtering.