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CUT

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: February 2026
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NAME

cut - remove sections from each line of files

SYNOPSIS

cut ,OPTION/... [,FILE/]...

DESCRIPTION

Print selected parts of lines from each FILE to standard output.

With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#cu-b'-b, --bytes=,LISTX'tty: link'/: select only these bytes
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#cu-c'-c, --characters=,LISTX'tty: link'/: select only these characters
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#cu-d'-d, --delimiter=,DELIMX'tty: link'/: use DELIM instead of TAB for field delimiter
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#cu-f'-f, --fields=,LISTX'tty: link'/: select only these fields; also print any line that contains no delimiter character, unless the -s option is specified
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#cu-n'-nX'tty: link': (ignored)
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#cu-complement'--complementX'tty: link': complement the set of selected bytes, characters or fields
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#cu-s'-s, --only-delimitedX'tty: link': do not print lines not containing delimiters
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#cu-outpu-delimiter'--output-delimiter=STRINGX'tty: link': use STRING as the output delimiter; the default is to use the input delimiter
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#cu-z'-z, --zero-terminatedX'tty: link': line delimiter is NUL, not newline
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/cut#cu-help'--helpX'tty: link': display this help and exit
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/cut#cu-version'--versionX'tty: link': output version information and exit

Use one, and only one of -b, -c or -f. Each LIST is made up of one range, or many ranges separated by commas. Selected input is written in the same order that it is read, and is written exactly once. Each range is one of:

N: N'th byte, character or field, counted from 1
N-: from N'th byte, character or field, to end of line
N-M: from N'th to M'th (included) byte, character or field
-M: from first to M'th (included) byte, character or field

AUTHOR

Written by David M. Ihnat, David MacKenzie, and Jim Meyering.

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to: bug-coreutils@gnu.org

Report Gentoo bugs to: https://bugs.gentoo.org/
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
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