In computing, cut is a command line utility on Unix and Unix-like operating systems which is used to extract sections from each line of input — usually from a file. It is currently part of the GNU coreutils package and the BSD Base System. Extraction of line segments can typically be done by bytes (-b), characters (-c), or fields (-f) separated by a delimiter (-d — the tab character by default). A range must be provided in each case which consists of one of N, N-M, N- (N to the end of the line), or -M (beginning of the line to M), where N and M are counted from 1 (there is no zeroth value). Since version 6, an error is thrown if you include a zeroth value. Prior to this the value was ignored and assumed to be 1. History is part of the X/Open Portability Guide since issue 2 of 1987. It was inherited into the first version of POSIX.1 and the Single Unix Specification. It first appeared in AT&T System III UNIX in 1982. The version of cut bundled in GNU coreutils was written by David M. Ihnat, David MacKenzie, and Jim Meyering. The command is available as a separate package for Microsoft Windows as part of the UnxUtils collection of native Win32 ports of common GNU Unix-like utilities. The command has also been ported to the IBM i operating system. Examples Assuming a file named "file" containing the lines: foo:bar:baz:qux:quux one:two:three:four:five:six:seven alpha:beta:gamma:delta:epsilon:zeta:eta:theta:iota:kappa:lambda:mu the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog To output the fourth through tenth characters of each line: $ cut -c 4-10 file :bar:ba :two:th ha:beta quick To output the fifth field through the end of the line of each line using the colon character as the field delimiter: $ cut -d ":" -f 5- file quux five:six:seven epsilon:zeta:eta:theta:iota:kappa:lambda:mu the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog (note that because the colon character is not found in the last line the entire line is shown) Option -d specified a single character delimiter (in the example above it is a colon) which serves as field separator. Option -f which specifies range of fields included in the output (here fields range from five till the end). Option -d presupposes usage of option -f. To output the third field of each line using space as the field delimiter: $ cut -d " " -f 3