title: ccut mansection: 1 date: 2016/05/15
ccut - COLUM'S CUT
ccut is a unix 'cut' command with a couple of extra features (and a couple of features missing).
ccut supports:
utf-8 input in -c mode
multiple delimiters
using a string as the delimiter rather than a character
treating runs of a delimiter as one delimiter
quoting using either quotes or backslash within the cut document (for example, honor " quotes or , in a csv)
honoring quotes or backslash in a document but stripping them from output
outputting fields in any specified order
outputting a different delimiter than those within the cut document
setting variables in the shell to values of cut fields
SYNTAX
Usage: cut OPTION... [FILE]...
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, -t, --delimiter=[list] : list of delimiter characters. Default is just the 'tab' character. Multiple instances of -t or -d are allowed
-D, --delimstr=[delim] : use a string as a delimiter rather than a list of single character delimiter. Only one string delimiter can be used and it cannot be used in combination with -d or -t options
-f, --fields=LIST : select only these fields; also print any line without delimiter characters, unless the -s option is specified
--complement : complement the set of selected bytes, characters or fields
-j, --join-delims : combine runs of delimters and treat them as one delimiter
-q, --quote : honor quoting within target document using \ or ' or "
-Q, --quote-strip : honor quoting within target document, but strip quotes off output fields
-s, --only-delimited : do not print lines not containing delimiters
-T, --output-delimiter=[string] : use string as the output delimiter the default is to use the input delimiter
--utf8 : honor UTF-8 unicode characters on input. This causes unicode strings to be treated as single characters in both -c and -b opertations
-V, --vars=[list] : print out bash commands to set variables using the supplied comma-separated list of names
-z, --zero-terminated : read input where lines are null terminated
-?, --help : display this help and exit
-v, --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. THIS CUT DOES NOT SUPPORT WIDE CHARACTERS (yet). So '-c' and '-b' are equivalent
Multiple characters can be specified as the input delimiter. The following quoted characters are recognized:
\e escape
\t tab
\r carriage-return
\n newline
\xnn where 'nn' is a two-digit hex-code
Selected input is written in the SPECIFIED ORDER (unlike gnu cut), and fields can be output multiple times. However, order has no meaning when cut is run with --complement, so then fields are output in the order they are encountered in the data
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
The '-V' or '--vars' option allows a comma-separated list of variable names to be supplied. Cut will then match output fields to those variable names and print out commands to set those variables in a borne-style shell. This can then be used with the 'eval' command to set variables in the shell.
EXAMPLES
Cut using either [ or ] as the delimiter
cat file | ccut -d "[]" -f 3
Cut and output fields in a particular order
cat file | ccut -f 3,1,6,5
cut using escape and tab as delimiters
cat file | ccut -d "\e\t" -f 4
cut honoring document quoting (quoting can use \ ' or ")
echo "field1,"field2 with , in it",field3,field4\,comma,field5 | ccut -d , -q -f 4
cut using space, comma and semicolon as delimiters, replace delimiters with '-' on output
echo "field1 field2,field3;field4,field5" | ccut -d " ,;" -f 2,4 -T -
cut using space as a delimiter, and treating runs of multiple spaces as one delimiter
echo "field1 field2 field3 field4 field5" | ccut -d " " -j -f 2,4,3 -T -
set variables in the shell from fields in input
eval `echo apples,oranges,pears,lemons,lime | ccut -d , -f 2,4,5,1,3 -V citrus1,citrus2,citrus3,poma1,poma2`
AUTHOR
Written by Colum Paget colums.projects@gmail.com
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2016 Colum Paget. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later http://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.