CUT(1) User Commands CUT(1)
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.
-b, --bytes=LIST
select only these bytes
-c, --characters=LIST
select only these characters
-d, --delimiter=DELIM
use DELIM instead of TAB for field delimiter
-f, --fields=LIST
select only these fields; also print any line that contains no
delimiter character, unless the -s option is specified
-n (ignored)
--complement
complement the set of selected bytes, characters or fields
-s, --only-delimited
do not print lines not containing delimiters
--output-delimiter=STRING
use STRING as the output delimiter; the default is to use the
input delimiter
-z, --zero-terminated
line delimiter is NUL, not newline
--help display this help and exit
--version
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
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU
GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
SEE ALSO
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/cut>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) cut invocation'
GNU coreutils 9.10 March 2026 CUT(1)
coreutils 9.10 - Generated Thu Apr 2 15:18:37 CDT 2026