awk one-liners: extract and filter columns from any output

Use awk '{print $n}' with -F and conditions to slice columns and filter rows on Linux.

LinuxawkfieldstextLow risk

Run awk '{print $2, $5}' FILE (add -F, for comma-delimited data) to print chosen fields, with conditions like '$3>10' to filter rows.

01Command

Command

$ df -h | awk 'NR>1 {print $6, $5}' && ps aux | awk '$3>10 {print $11}'

02What it does

awk treats every input line as whitespace-split fields $1 through $NF, so printing column 2 is just {print $2} — no regex needed. The -F flag changes the separator (CSV, colons in /etc/passwd), conditions before the braces act as row filters, NR>1 skips headers, and $NF always means the last field. It combines cutting, grep-filtering and formatting in one process, which is why one awk line replaces a pipeline of three commands.

03Risk

RiskLow risk

!Warning: Default splitting collapses runs of whitespace; for single-space-significant data use -F ' ' with an explicit regex.

04Undo

✓No undo needed — this command does not change persistent state.

05Sources

AWK — ArchWiki
Arch Linux · community · 2026-09-17
Evidence: Community examples of field extraction one-liners with print $n and conditions
awk(1P) — POSIX manual page
man7.org · technical · 2026-09-17
Evidence: Documents field variables $1..$NF, pattern-action pairs and the -F field separator

Last verified: 2026-09-17 · Category: Files & Folders

06Related solutions

Create and Apply Patches with diff -u and patch

Linuxdiffpatchtext

Generate a unified diff between two files, apply it to another copy with patch, and reverse it with patch -R.

Low risk ✓ 2026-09-17