On Wed, 21 Nov 2007, Ed Greshko wrote: > Robert P. J. Day wrote: > > nitpicky, yes, but it occasionally irritates me that "cut" will > > print fields, not in the order you specify them with the "-f" option, > > but in the original order in the source text, to wit: > > > > $ cut -d: -f1,7 /etc/passwd > > root:/bin/bash > > bin:/sbin/nologin > > daemon:/sbin/nologin > > ... > > > > $ cut -fd: -f7,1 /etc/passwd > > root:/bin/bash > > bin:/sbin/nologin > > daemon:/sbin/nologin > > ... > > > > is there really a reason that cut refuses to acknowledge the > > order of the fields as supplied by the user? some historical > > reason, perhaps, that we can now all make fun of and wonder what > > they were smoking at the time? > > I don't see any indication from the man page that would lead one to > believe that cut will print in the order listed. I think you are > simply implying a behavior that was never intended. i understand that that's not indicated on the man page. on the other hand, is there any reason that it *wasn't* done that way? it would seem that that would be an obvious enhancement and, certainly, that would be more intuitive behaviour, no? rday -- ======================================================================== Robert P. J. Day Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA http://crashcourse.ca ========================================================================
