Subject: Re: bug#20928: cut (v. 8.21), using -f option with a single column

From: Pádraig Brady <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2015 16:31:00 +0100

tag 20928 notabug
close 20928
stop

On 29/06/15 09:18, Kuchta, Tomasz wrote:
> Hello.
> 
> I’m not sure if this is a bug - I just wanted to let you know.
> Thanks,
> Tomek
> 
> ——
> 
> When there is more than one column and we go beyond the number of columns with the -f option, the output is empty
> 
> $ echo "test1 test2" | cut -d' ' -f1
> test1
> $ echo "test1 test2" | cut -d' ' -f2
> test2
> $ echo "test1 test2" | cut -d' ' -f3
> 
> $
> 
> —— 
> 
> When there is only one column and we go beyond 1 with the -f option, the output remains the first column
> 
> $ echo "test1" | cut -d' ' -f1
> test1
> $ echo "test1" | cut -d' ' -f2
> test1
> $ echo "test1" | cut -d' ' -f3
> test1

That difference in behavior is there for compat reasons.
To induce the behavior you expect, you need the -s option.

thanks,
Pádraig.