Re: cut(1) feature request

[Philip Rowlands]

On Fri, 17 Jun 2005 address@hidden wrote:

>I'm missing a feature in cut(1) and wanted to know if i) one can change
>the behaviour of the return fields or ii) add an additional parameter
>(let's say -F) to GNU cut. The latter option would ensure that things
>don't get broken, whereas the first option seems more intuitiv.

The spec mandates that the selected fields be returned in order:
http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/cut.html

Note in the "rationale" section the proposal to add "-o" as as argument
to indicate that list order should be preserved.

Whether or not GNU cut should use the exact argument "-o", I think it
would be a useful feature. I can't speak for the coreutils maintainer,
but patches are usually welcome, especially if supplied with good
documentation and testing.


Cheers,
Phil