Cut command in Linux

The cut command extracts certain portion of text from each line of input string or from a file by characters, delimiter, complement, and fields options.

I have created dummy content for you to test all the above options.

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Welcome to Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.15.0-117-generic x86_64)
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

Get options listed above and put them one by one to the following structure.

You have 3 options to run the cut command. In this article, I will be using option 1 most of the time but you are free to choose other options as well.

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# option 1
cut [options] filename.txt

# option 2
cat filename.txt | cut [options]

# option 3
<ANY_LINUX_COMMAND> | cut [options]

To extract specific characters only, use -c option. The following command will return the second character of each line.

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cut -c 2 filename.txt

To extract specific characters between 3 to 7 range can also be done with -c option by specifying start and end position delimited with a hyphen -. The following command extracts characters between 3 to 7 range of each line.

Note: start or end position both are optional. I will show you in a bit.

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cut -c 3-7 filename.txt

To print everything except characters between 3 to 7 range, use --complement with -c options.

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cut --complement -c 3-7 filename.txt

To extract from the 7th character to the end of each line can also be done with -c option. In the following command end position is optional.

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cut -c 7- filename.txt

To extract from the beginning till 7th characters of each line can also be done with -c option. In the following command, start position is optional.

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cut -c -7 filename.txt

To extract an entire field, you can combine -d and -f options.

• -f number of fields you want to extract.
• -d which field delimiter you want to use to extract.

Run the following command to get the 1st field of each line by using : (colon) as the field delimiter.

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cut -d ':' -f 1 filename.txt

To extract multiple fields use comma-separated value ,. The following command extract 1st, 3rd, and 7th fields.

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cut -d ':' -f 1,3,7 filename.txt

To extract a range of fields uses hyphen separated value -. The following command extracts fields between 2 to 6 range of each line.

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cut -d ':' -f 2-6 filename.txt

To extract multiple fields separated by comma , + range of fields separated by a hyphen - which will return 1 through 4, 6, and 7 fields as follows.

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cut -d ':' -f 1-4,6,7 filename.txt

To extract from 7th field to end of each line. In the following command end position is optional.

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cut -d ':' -f 7- filename.txt

To extract from beginning till 7th field of each line. In the following command, start position is optional.

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cut -d ':' -f -7 filename.txt

To change the default delimiter, use --output-delimiter option. In the following command, find : (colon) and replace it with # (hash) delimiter.

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cut -d ':' -f 1,6,7 --output-delimiter='#' filename.txt

You can also replace each field with \n newline instead of # hash.

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cut -d ':' -f 1,6,7 --output-delimiter=$'\n' filename.txt