tuc (when cut doesn't cut it)

You want to cut on more than just a character, perhaps using negative indexes or format the selected fields as you want... Maybe you want to cut on lines (ever needed to drop first and last line?)... That's where tuc can help.

Install

Download one of the prebuilt binaries

or run

# requires rustc >= 1.61.0
cargo install tuc # append `--features regex` if you want regex support

For other installation methods, check below the community managed packages

Help

tuc 0.12.0 [UNRELEASED]
Cut text (or bytes) where a delimiter matches, then keep the desired parts.

The data is read from standard input.

USAGE:
    tuc [FLAGS] [OPTIONS]

FLAGS:
    -g, --greedy-delimiter        Match consecutive delimiters as if it was one
    -p, --compress-delimiter      Print only the first delimiter of a sequence
    -s, --only-delimited          Print only lines containing the delimiter
    -V, --version                 Print version information
    -z, --zero-terminated         Line delimiter is NUL (\0), not LF (\n)
    -h, --help                    Print this help and exit
    -m, --complement              Invert fields (e.g. '2' becomes '1,3:')
    -j, --(no-)join               Print selected parts with delimiter inbetween

OPTIONS:
    -f, --fields <bounds>         Fields to keep, 1-indexed, comma separated.
                                  Use colon to include everything in a range.
                                  Fields can be negative (-1 is the last field).
                                  [default 1:]

                                  e.g. cutting on '-' the string 'a-b-c-d'
                                    1     => a
                                    1:    => a-b-c-d
                                    1:3   => a-b-c
                                    3,2   => cb
                                    3,1:2 => ca-b
                                    -3:-2 => b-c

                                  To re-apply the delimiter add -j, to replace
                                  it add -r (followed by the new delimiter).

                                  You can also format the output using {} syntax
                                  e.g.
                                  '["{1}", "{2}"]' => ["a", "b"]

                                  You can escape { and } using {{ and }}.

    -b, --bytes <bounds>          Same as --fields, but it keeps bytes
    -c, --characters <bounds>     Same as --fields, but it keeps characters
    -l, --lines <bounds>          Same as --fields, but it keeps lines
                                  Implies --join. To merge lines, use --no-join
    -d, --delimiter <delimiter>   Delimiter used by --fields to cut the text
                                  [default: \t]
    -e, --regex                   Use a regular expression as delimiter
    -r, --replace-delimiter <new> Replace the delimiter with the provided text
    -t, --trim <type>             Trim the delimiter (greedy). Valid values are
                                  (l|L)eft, (r|R)ight, (b|B)oth

Options precedence:
    --trim and --compress-delimiter are applied before --fields or similar

Memory consumption:
    --characters and --fields read and allocate memory one line at a time

    --lines allocate memory one line at a time as long as the requested fields
    are ordered and non-negative (e.g. -l 1,3:4,4,7), otherwise it allocates
    the whole input in memory (it also happens when -p or -m are being used)

    --bytes allocate the whole input in memory

Examples

# Cut and rearrange fields...
❯ echo "foo bar baz" | tuc -d ' ' -f 3,2,1
bazbarfoo

# ...and apply back the delimiter...
❯ echo "foo bar baz" | tuc -j -d ' ' -f 3,2,1
baz bar foo

# ...or replace it
❯ echo "foo bar baz" | tuc -j -r ' ➡ ' -d ' ' -f 3,2,1
baz ➡ bar ➡ foo

# Keep ranges
❯ echo "foo bar    baz" | tuc -d ' ' -f 2:
bar    baz

# Cut using a greedy delimiter
❯ echo "foo    bar" | tuc -g -d ' ' -f 1,2
foobar

# Format output
❯ echo "foo bar baz" | tuc -d ' ' -f '{1}, {2} and lastly {3}'
foo, bar and lastly baz
# Support \n
❯ echo "100Kb README.txt 2049-02-01" | tuc -d ' ' -f '{2}\n├── {1}\n└── {3}'
README.txt
├── 100Kb
└── 2049-02-01

# Cut lines (e.g. drop first and last line)
❯ printf "a\nb\nc\nd\ne" | tuc -l 2:-2
b
c
d

# Concatenate lines
❯ printf "a\nb\nc\nd\ne" | tuc -l 1,2 --no-join
ab

# Compress delimiters after cut
❯ echo "foo    bar   baz" | tuc -d ' ' -f 2: -p
bar baz

# Replace remaining delimiters with something else
❯ echo "foo    bar   baz" | tuc -d ' ' -f 2: -p -r ' -> '
bar -> baz

# Indexes can be negative and rearranged
❯ echo "a b c" | tuc -d ' ' -f -1,-2,-3
cba

# Cut using regular expressions (requires a release with regex features enabled)
❯ echo "a,b, c" | tuc -e '[, ]+' -f 1,3
ac

# Delimiters can be any number of characters long
❯ echo "a<sep>b<sep>c" | tuc -d '<sep>' -f 1,3
ac

# Cut characters (expects UTF-8 input)
❯ echo "😁🤩😝😎" | tuc -c 4,3,2,1
😎😝🤩😁

# Cut bytes (the following emoji are 4 bytes each)
❯ echo "😁🤩😝😎" | tuc -b 5:8
🤩

# Keep non-matching fields
❯ echo "a b c" | tuc --complement -d ' ' -f 2
ac

Community-Managed Packages

MacPorts (on macOS):
```
sudo port install tuc
```

LICENSE

Tuc is distributed under the GNU GPL license (version 3 or any later version).