Cut command Error: the delimiter must be a single character

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up vote
1
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favorite

I am trying the following command on bash-4.3

$history | grep history | xargs cut -d ' ' -f1

but i am getting the following delimiter Error that I can't get rid of

cut: the delimiter must be a single character

I tried removing xargs but it gives a blank output. The whole idea is to get a particular command number from the history and then pass it to history -d to delete that particular command from the history. Here is just the output of

history | grep history



 498 history | grep history | cat | xargs cut -d " " -f1
 500 history | grep history | cat | xargs awk -ifs " "
 501 history | grep history | xargs cut -d " " -f1
 502 history | grep history | xargs cut -d '0' -f1
 503 history | grep history | xargs cut -d 0 -f1
 504* history | 
 505 history | ack history | xargs cut -d ' ' -f1
 506 history | ack history | xargs cut -d ' ' -f1
 507 history | ack history | cut -d ' ' -f1
 508 history | grep history 

grep command-history cut

share|improve this question

edited 5 hours ago

asked 5 hours ago

user2065276

103

• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  Try it without the xargs. Although I'm not sure what this command is meant to do...
  – Stephen Harris
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  @StephenHarris updated post. So the idea is to get a particular command number from the history and then pass it to history -d to delete a particular command from the history
  – user2065276
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  So you probably want to use awk to get the first field. Something like history | awk '/command_to_search_for/ print $1'. That'll return the history number of "command_to_search_for"
  – Stephen Harris
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  @StephenHarris What is wrong with my command. How can i fix it?
  – user2065276
  5 hours ago
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  cut -d' ' will split on spaces... but there are multiple spaces and so -f1 will probably just return a space. awk print $1 is easier to get the first field. So you could do history | grep command_to_search_for | awk 'print $1' but that's simpler written with the history | awk command I suggested.
  – Stephen Harris
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

up vote
1
down vote

favorite

I am trying the following command on bash-4.3

$history | grep history | xargs cut -d ' ' -f1

but i am getting the following delimiter Error that I can't get rid of

cut: the delimiter must be a single character

I tried removing xargs but it gives a blank output. The whole idea is to get a particular command number from the history and then pass it to history -d to delete that particular command from the history. Here is just the output of

history | grep history



 498 history | grep history | cat | xargs cut -d " " -f1
 500 history | grep history | cat | xargs awk -ifs " "
 501 history | grep history | xargs cut -d " " -f1
 502 history | grep history | xargs cut -d '0' -f1
 503 history | grep history | xargs cut -d 0 -f1
 504* history | 
 505 history | ack history | xargs cut -d ' ' -f1
 506 history | ack history | xargs cut -d ' ' -f1
 507 history | ack history | cut -d ' ' -f1
 508 history | grep history 

grep command-history cut

share|improve this question

edited 5 hours ago

asked 5 hours ago

user2065276

103

• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  Try it without the xargs. Although I'm not sure what this command is meant to do...
  – Stephen Harris
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  @StephenHarris updated post. So the idea is to get a particular command number from the history and then pass it to history -d to delete a particular command from the history
  – user2065276
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  So you probably want to use awk to get the first field. Something like history | awk '/command_to_search_for/ print $1'. That'll return the history number of "command_to_search_for"
  – Stephen Harris
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  @StephenHarris What is wrong with my command. How can i fix it?
  – user2065276
  5 hours ago
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  cut -d' ' will split on spaces... but there are multiple spaces and so -f1 will probably just return a space. awk print $1 is easier to get the first field. So you could do history | grep command_to_search_for | awk 'print $1' but that's simpler written with the history | awk command I suggested.
  – Stephen Harris
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

up vote
1
down vote

favorite

up vote
1
down vote

favorite

I am trying the following command on bash-4.3

$history | grep history | xargs cut -d ' ' -f1

but i am getting the following delimiter Error that I can't get rid of

cut: the delimiter must be a single character

I tried removing xargs but it gives a blank output. The whole idea is to get a particular command number from the history and then pass it to history -d to delete that particular command from the history. Here is just the output of

history | grep history



 498 history | grep history | cat | xargs cut -d " " -f1
 500 history | grep history | cat | xargs awk -ifs " "
 501 history | grep history | xargs cut -d " " -f1
 502 history | grep history | xargs cut -d '0' -f1
 503 history | grep history | xargs cut -d 0 -f1
 504* history | 
 505 history | ack history | xargs cut -d ' ' -f1
 506 history | ack history | xargs cut -d ' ' -f1
 507 history | ack history | cut -d ' ' -f1
 508 history | grep history 

grep command-history cut

share|improve this question

edited 5 hours ago

asked 5 hours ago

user2065276

103

I am trying the following command on bash-4.3

$history | grep history | xargs cut -d ' ' -f1

but i am getting the following delimiter Error that I can't get rid of

cut: the delimiter must be a single character

I tried removing xargs but it gives a blank output. The whole idea is to get a particular command number from the history and then pass it to history -d to delete that particular command from the history. Here is just the output of

history | grep history



 498 history | grep history | cat | xargs cut -d " " -f1
 500 history | grep history | cat | xargs awk -ifs " "
 501 history | grep history | xargs cut -d " " -f1
 502 history | grep history | xargs cut -d '0' -f1
 503 history | grep history | xargs cut -d 0 -f1
 504* history | 
 505 history | ack history | xargs cut -d ' ' -f1
 506 history | ack history | xargs cut -d ' ' -f1
 507 history | ack history | cut -d ' ' -f1
 508 history | grep history 

grep command-history cut

grep command-history cut

share|improve this question

edited 5 hours ago

asked 5 hours ago

user2065276

103

share|improve this question

edited 5 hours ago

asked 5 hours ago

user2065276

103

share|improve this question

share|improve this question

edited 5 hours ago

edited 5 hours ago

edited 5 hours ago

asked 5 hours ago

user2065276

103

asked 5 hours ago

user2065276

103

asked 5 hours ago

user2065276

103

103

• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  Try it without the xargs. Although I'm not sure what this command is meant to do...
  – Stephen Harris
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  @StephenHarris updated post. So the idea is to get a particular command number from the history and then pass it to history -d to delete a particular command from the history
  – user2065276
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  So you probably want to use awk to get the first field. Something like history | awk '/command_to_search_for/ print $1'. That'll return the history number of "command_to_search_for"
  – Stephen Harris
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  @StephenHarris What is wrong with my command. How can i fix it?
  – user2065276
  5 hours ago
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  cut -d' ' will split on spaces... but there are multiple spaces and so -f1 will probably just return a space. awk print $1 is easier to get the first field. So you could do history | grep command_to_search_for | awk 'print $1' but that's simpler written with the history | awk command I suggested.
  – Stephen Harris
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  Try it without the xargs. Although I'm not sure what this command is meant to do...
  – Stephen Harris
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  @StephenHarris updated post. So the idea is to get a particular command number from the history and then pass it to history -d to delete a particular command from the history
  – user2065276
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  So you probably want to use awk to get the first field. Something like history | awk '/command_to_search_for/ print $1'. That'll return the history number of "command_to_search_for"
  – Stephen Harris
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  @StephenHarris What is wrong with my command. How can i fix it?
  – user2065276
  5 hours ago
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  cut -d' ' will split on spaces... but there are multiple spaces and so -f1 will probably just return a space. awk print $1 is easier to get the first field. So you could do history | grep command_to_search_for | awk 'print $1' but that's simpler written with the history | awk command I suggested.
  – Stephen Harris
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

1

1

Try it without the xargs. Although I'm not sure what this command is meant to do...
– Stephen Harris
5 hours ago

Try it without the xargs. Although I'm not sure what this command is meant to do...
– Stephen Harris
5 hours ago

@StephenHarris updated post. So the idea is to get a particular command number from the history and then pass it to history -d to delete a particular command from the history
– user2065276
5 hours ago

@StephenHarris updated post. So the idea is to get a particular command number from the history and then pass it to history -d to delete a particular command from the history
– user2065276
5 hours ago

So you probably want to use awk to get the first field. Something like history | awk '/command_to_search_for/ print $1'. That'll return the history number of "command_to_search_for"
– Stephen Harris
5 hours ago

So you probably want to use awk to get the first field. Something like history | awk '/command_to_search_for/ print $1'. That'll return the history number of "command_to_search_for"
– Stephen Harris
5 hours ago

@StephenHarris What is wrong with my command. How can i fix it?
– user2065276
5 hours ago

@StephenHarris What is wrong with my command. How can i fix it?
– user2065276
5 hours ago

1

1

cut -d' ' will split on spaces... but there are multiple spaces and so -f1 will probably just return a space. awk print $1 is easier to get the first field. So you could do history | grep command_to_search_for | awk 'print $1' but that's simpler written with the history | awk command I suggested.
– Stephen Harris
5 hours ago

cut -d' ' will split on spaces... but there are multiple spaces and so -f1 will probably just return a space. awk print $1 is easier to get the first field. So you could do history | grep command_to_search_for | awk 'print $1' but that's simpler written with the history | awk command I suggested.
– Stephen Harris
5 hours ago

add a comment | 

2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

up vote
4
down vote



accepted

Some explanations:

• You actually want the second field, so you need to change to `cut -d ' ' -f 2'.


• 
  

  xargs is not applicable here. What it does is take standard input and passes them as arguments to a command. However, cut operates on standard input by default, which is what you want. history | grep history | xargs cut […] ends up creating commands like cut […] [some content from the Bash history]'. To process a series of line numbers printed with a newline after each you'll want to use a while read loop:

  
  
  

  while IFS=$'n' read -r -u9 number
  do
   history -d "$number"
  done 9< <(history | grep […] | cut […])
  

  
  


• 
  some_command | cat | other_command is completely redundant. cat simply copies its standard input to standard output by default.

share|improve this answer

edited 5 hours ago

answered 5 hours ago

l0b0

26.5k17106232

add a comment | 

up vote
4
down vote

Try this command

 history | grep history | awk NR==1'print $8 " " $9 " " $10 " " $11 " " $12 "" $13 '
xargs cut -d ' '-f1

NR==1: awk will read the cells in the first row of the table, then prints the columns relevant to "xargs cut -d ' '-f1" which are 8-12

share|improve this answer

edited 5 hours ago

answered 5 hours ago

Goro

5,20552459

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  please explain the awk syntax and arguments. Thanks
  – user2065276
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  What is wrong with my command. How can i fix it?
  – user2065276
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

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2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

active

oldest

votes

active

oldest

votes

up vote
4
down vote



accepted

Some explanations:

• You actually want the second field, so you need to change to `cut -d ' ' -f 2'.


• 
  

  xargs is not applicable here. What it does is take standard input and passes them as arguments to a command. However, cut operates on standard input by default, which is what you want. history | grep history | xargs cut […] ends up creating commands like cut […] [some content from the Bash history]'. To process a series of line numbers printed with a newline after each you'll want to use a while read loop:

  
  
  

  while IFS=$'n' read -r -u9 number
  do
   history -d "$number"
  done 9< <(history | grep […] | cut […])
  

  
  


• 
  some_command | cat | other_command is completely redundant. cat simply copies its standard input to standard output by default.

share|improve this answer

edited 5 hours ago

answered 5 hours ago

l0b0

26.5k17106232

add a comment | 

up vote
4
down vote



accepted

Some explanations:

• You actually want the second field, so you need to change to `cut -d ' ' -f 2'.


• 
  

  xargs is not applicable here. What it does is take standard input and passes them as arguments to a command. However, cut operates on standard input by default, which is what you want. history | grep history | xargs cut […] ends up creating commands like cut […] [some content from the Bash history]'. To process a series of line numbers printed with a newline after each you'll want to use a while read loop:

  
  
  

  while IFS=$'n' read -r -u9 number
  do
   history -d "$number"
  done 9< <(history | grep […] | cut […])
  

  
  


• 
  some_command | cat | other_command is completely redundant. cat simply copies its standard input to standard output by default.

share|improve this answer

edited 5 hours ago

answered 5 hours ago

l0b0

26.5k17106232

add a comment | 

up vote
4
down vote



accepted

up vote
4
down vote



accepted

Some explanations:

• You actually want the second field, so you need to change to `cut -d ' ' -f 2'.


• 
  

  xargs is not applicable here. What it does is take standard input and passes them as arguments to a command. However, cut operates on standard input by default, which is what you want. history | grep history | xargs cut […] ends up creating commands like cut […] [some content from the Bash history]'. To process a series of line numbers printed with a newline after each you'll want to use a while read loop:

  
  
  

  while IFS=$'n' read -r -u9 number
  do
   history -d "$number"
  done 9< <(history | grep […] | cut […])
  

  
  


• 
  some_command | cat | other_command is completely redundant. cat simply copies its standard input to standard output by default.

share|improve this answer

edited 5 hours ago

answered 5 hours ago

l0b0

26.5k17106232

Some explanations:

• You actually want the second field, so you need to change to `cut -d ' ' -f 2'.


• 
  

  xargs is not applicable here. What it does is take standard input and passes them as arguments to a command. However, cut operates on standard input by default, which is what you want. history | grep history | xargs cut […] ends up creating commands like cut […] [some content from the Bash history]'. To process a series of line numbers printed with a newline after each you'll want to use a while read loop:

  
  
  

  while IFS=$'n' read -r -u9 number
  do
   history -d "$number"
  done 9< <(history | grep […] | cut […])
  

  
  


• 
  some_command | cat | other_command is completely redundant. cat simply copies its standard input to standard output by default.

share|improve this answer

edited 5 hours ago

answered 5 hours ago

l0b0

26.5k17106232

share|improve this answer

share|improve this answer

edited 5 hours ago

edited 5 hours ago

edited 5 hours ago

answered 5 hours ago

l0b0

26.5k17106232

answered 5 hours ago

l0b0

26.5k17106232

answered 5 hours ago

l0b0

26.5k17106232

26.5k17106232

add a comment | 

add a comment | 

up vote
4
down vote

Try this command

 history | grep history | awk NR==1'print $8 " " $9 " " $10 " " $11 " " $12 "" $13 '
xargs cut -d ' '-f1

NR==1: awk will read the cells in the first row of the table, then prints the columns relevant to "xargs cut -d ' '-f1" which are 8-12

share|improve this answer

edited 5 hours ago

answered 5 hours ago

Goro

5,20552459

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  please explain the awk syntax and arguments. Thanks
  – user2065276
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  What is wrong with my command. How can i fix it?
  – user2065276
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

up vote
4
down vote

Try this command

 history | grep history | awk NR==1'print $8 " " $9 " " $10 " " $11 " " $12 "" $13 '
xargs cut -d ' '-f1

NR==1: awk will read the cells in the first row of the table, then prints the columns relevant to "xargs cut -d ' '-f1" which are 8-12

share|improve this answer

edited 5 hours ago

answered 5 hours ago

Goro

5,20552459

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  please explain the awk syntax and arguments. Thanks
  – user2065276
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  What is wrong with my command. How can i fix it?
  – user2065276
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

up vote
4
down vote

up vote
4
down vote

Try this command

 history | grep history | awk NR==1'print $8 " " $9 " " $10 " " $11 " " $12 "" $13 '
xargs cut -d ' '-f1

NR==1: awk will read the cells in the first row of the table, then prints the columns relevant to "xargs cut -d ' '-f1" which are 8-12

share|improve this answer

edited 5 hours ago

answered 5 hours ago

Goro

5,20552459

Try this command

 history | grep history | awk NR==1'print $8 " " $9 " " $10 " " $11 " " $12 "" $13 '
xargs cut -d ' '-f1

NR==1: awk will read the cells in the first row of the table, then prints the columns relevant to "xargs cut -d ' '-f1" which are 8-12

share|improve this answer

edited 5 hours ago

answered 5 hours ago

Goro

5,20552459

share|improve this answer

share|improve this answer

edited 5 hours ago

edited 5 hours ago

edited 5 hours ago

answered 5 hours ago

Goro

5,20552459

answered 5 hours ago

Goro

5,20552459

answered 5 hours ago

Goro

5,20552459

5,20552459

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  please explain the awk syntax and arguments. Thanks
  – user2065276
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  What is wrong with my command. How can i fix it?
  – user2065276
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  please explain the awk syntax and arguments. Thanks
  – user2065276
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  What is wrong with my command. How can i fix it?
  – user2065276
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

please explain the awk syntax and arguments. Thanks
– user2065276
5 hours ago

please explain the awk syntax and arguments. Thanks
– user2065276
5 hours ago

What is wrong with my command. How can i fix it?
– user2065276
5 hours ago

What is wrong with my command. How can i fix it?
– user2065276
5 hours ago

add a comment | 

 

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