To properly cut the output of
unix standard commands; such
as ls, ps; and properly handle
them without all the extra
spaces, use this:
% ls -lt| tr -s " " | cut -f6-10
% ls -lt| tr -s " " | < --do what ever-- >
tr -s " " ==> here tr in
effect removes all the extra
formatting extra spaces
introduced by unix shell,
for display, and translates
in to format easy to work
with.
If we dont use this tr, then
the -c option of cut will be
unreliable because of varying
size field lengths in the
output and also -f option
will be unreliable because of
extra formatting delimiters.
ls -lt | tr -s " "
ps -ef | tr -s " "
gives us proper output to
properly extract data or
columns.
This tip generously supported by: snlmurthy@yahoo.com NOTE: All tips provided are USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Tips are submitted
by various unix admins around the globe. UGU suggest you read and
test each tip in a non-volitile environment before placing into
production.