Manual Pages  — COLRM

colrm – remove columns from a file

SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION ENVIRONMENT EXIT STATUS EXAMPLES SEE ALSO HISTORY AUTHORS

colrm [start [stop]]

The colrm utility removes selected columns from the lines of a file. A column is defined as a single character in a line. Input is read from the standard input. Output is written to the standard output.

If only the start column is specified, columns numbered less than the start column will be written. If both start and stop columns are specified, columns numbered less than the start column or greater than the stop column will be written. Column numbering starts with one, not zero.

Tab characters increment the column count to the next multiple of eight. Backspace characters decrement the column count by one.

The utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

Show columns below 3 (c) and above 5 (e):

$ echo -e "abcdefgh\n12345678" | colrm 3 5
abfgh
12678

Specifying a start column bigger than the number of columns in the file is allowed and shows all the columns:

$ echo "abcdefgh" | colrm 100
abcdefgh

Using 1 as start column will show nothing:

$ echo "abcdefgh" | colrm 1

The colrm utility first appeared in BSD 1 .

Jeff Schriebman wrote the original version of colrm in November 1974.