GNU bug report logs - #23922
cut fails for non-delimited input lines with -f 2

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

From: Jens Mueller <jens.k.mueller <at> gmx.de>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: cut fails for non-delimited input lines with -f 2
Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2016 01:05:22 +0200

Hi,

I'd like to report the following behavior of cut.
I execute

$ echo "abc" | cut -f 2 -d " "

and I expect the empty line as output but you get "abc\n".
I believe the empty line is correct because I selected the second
field which is empty.
If you select the 3rd field

$ echo "abc cde" | cut -f 3 -d " "

it outputs the empty line and works as expected which supports my
reasoning.

I am running Debian with

$ cut --version | head -1
cut (GNU coreutils) 8.25

Jens

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