Cut has flags to extract byte or character ranges.
You don't have to use fields.
You don't have to use fields.
$ ls -l | cut -c 35-41
22
4096
4096
4096
4096
4096
4096
68
456
690
7926
8503
19914 ls -l | cut -c 35-41
6 Nov 1
6 Nov
6 Nov 1
6 Nov 1What were you expecting? That your character ranges in ls would match mine?
I would expect the command to work in any directory. Try a few different directories on your computer and you'll see that it won't work in some of them.
But ... why expect that? That's not what "character ranges" mean.
I mean, I was only trying to clarify that `cut` is not limited to fields only.