file foo:bar:baz:qux:quux one:two:three:four:five:six:seven alpha:beta:gamma:delta:epsilon:zeta:eta:theta:iota:kappa:lambda:mu brown (Note that because the space character is not found in the first three lines these entire lines are shown.) To separate two words having any delimiter: $ line=process.processid $ cut -d "." -f1 <<< $line process $ cut -d "." -f2 <<< $line processid Syntax cut [-b list] [-c list] [-f list] [-n] [-d delim] [-s] [file] Flags which may be used include: Bytes; a list following specifies a range of bytes which will be returned, e.g. would return the first 66 bytes of a line. NB If used in conjunction with , no multi-byte characters will be split. NNB. will only work on input lines of less than 1023 bytes Characters; a list following specifies a range of characters which will be returned, e.g. would return the first 66 characters of a line Specifies a field list, separated by a delimiter list A comma separated or blank separated list of integer denoted fields, incrementally ordered. The indicator may be supplied as shorthand to allow inclusion of ranges of fields e.g. for ranges 4–6 or as shorthand for field 5 to the end, etc. Used in combination with -b suppresses splits of multi-byte characters Delimiter; the character immediately following the option is the field delimiter for use in conjunction with the option; the default delimiter is tab. Space and other characters with special meanings within the context of the shell in use must be enquoted or escaped as necessary. Bypasses lines which contain no field delimiters when is specified, unless otherwise indicated. file The file (and accompanying path if necessary) to process as input. If no file is specified then standard input will be used. See also List of Unix commands grep paste (Unix) sed awk References External links Softpanorama cut page. Cut out selected fields of each line of a file A portrait of cut(1) and its historical background. Unix text processing utilities Standard Unix programs Unix SUS2008 utilities IBM i Qshell commands