GNU bug report logs - #14416
cut -c --output-delimiter stops inserting delimiters : bug?

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Konstantin Weber <weber <at> ac-autoconsult.de>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: cut -c --output-delimiter stops inserting delimiters : bug?
Date: Fri, 17 May 2013 15:33:12 +0200

Hello,

today I received a large text file with fixed-length data fields to import them into our databases.
I used the mighty cut but had to discover that it stops inserting output-delimiters when there are a lot of ranges.

My prompt was:
cut -b30-34,37-41,53-82,83-112,113-142,143-148,153-182,233-262,263-292,293-322,323-327,233-352 --output-delimiter=";" GER0506.dat > GER0506_true.csv

The output only has  the first 7 semicolons of the expected eleven.
I fixed it for my case by running cut a second time (
cut -b1-172,174-202,204-232,234-238,244-263 --output-delimiter=";" GER0506_true.csv > GER0506.csv
) but decided to report this behaviour because it seems undesired. Either I get output-delmiters (all of them) or not.

Is this a bug?

> cut --version
cut (GNU coreutils) 8.14
Copyright © 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Message #8 received at 14416 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: Konstantin Weber <weber <at> ac-autoconsult.de>
Cc: 14416 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#14416: cut -c --output-delimiter stops inserting delimiters
	: bug?
Date: Fri, 17 May 2013 17:50:29 +0100

tag 14416 notabug
close 14416
stop

On 05/17/2013 02:33 PM, Konstantin Weber wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> today I received a large text file with fixed-length data fields to import them into our databases.
> I used the mighty cut but had to discover that it stops inserting output-delimiters when there are a lot of ranges.
> 
> My prompt was:
> cut -b30-34,37-41,53-82,83-112,113-142,143-148,153-182,233-262,263-292,293-322,323-327,233-352 --output-delimiter=";" GER0506.dat > GER0506_true.csv

You typoed it.
s/233-352/328-352/

Or if you expected that to duplicate part of the line to a new field,
cut doesn't support that, and I suggest you preprocess first if you want that.

cheers,
Pádraig.

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