Cut command in Bash

Eg of a Bash script that displays:

• The content of the current directory

• In a list format

• Where only the part of the name after the first dash is displayed

list_dir=$(ls)
for i in $list_dir; do
        echo "$i" | cut -d '-' -f2
done

The script uses the ls command to list the contents of the current directory and assigns the result to the list_dir variable.

Here's a breakdown of the script:

1. list_dir=$(ls): This line uses the command substitution syntax $(...) to execute the ls command and store the result in the list_dir variable. The ls command lists the contents of the current directory.

2. for i in $list_dir; do: This line starts the for loop. It iterates over each item in the list_dir variable. The loop variable i takes each value in each iteration.

3. echo "$i" | cut -d '-' -f2: This line uses the echo command to print the current value of the loop variable i. The | symbol is a pipe, which redirects the output of the echo command to the input of the cut command.

The cut command is used to extract specific parts of a line or string based on a delimiter. Let's break down the command cut -d '-' -f2:

• -d '-': This specifies the delimiter used to separate the fields in the input. In this case, the delimiter is set to -, meaning that the input will be split into fields whenever a - character is encountered.

• -f2: This specifies the field(s) to be extracted from the input. In this case, it is set to 2, indicating that the second field after splitting the input on the delimiter will be extracted.

For example, let's consider the input string "example-text". Using the cut command with -d '-' -f2 on this input will result in "text" being extracted because:

• The delimiter - splits the input into two fields: "example" and "text".

• The -f2 option specifies that the second field, which is "text", should be extracted.

In the context of the script, the cut command is used to extract the part of the name after the first dash (-) in each item of the directory listing. It splits the input string at the first - character and returns the portion after it.