cut – Extract fields or columns from input text

The cut command slices sections of each line from input (stdin or file).

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Cut by delimiter (e.g., :)

cut -d ':' -f1 /etc/passwd

Print only the first field of each line, using : as delimiter.

Cut by character position

echo "hello-world" | cut -c1-5

Output: hello

Useful flags

• -d: delimiter (e.g., ,, :, |)
• -f: field number(s)
• -c: character position(s)

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