How to specify more spaces for the delimiter using cut?

Question

Is there any way to specify a field delimiter for more spaces with the cut command? (like \" \"+) ? For example: In the following string, I like to reach value \'3744\', wha

Answer 1

awk version is probably the best way to go, but you can also use cut if you firstly squeeze the repeats with tr:

ps axu | grep jbos[s] | tr -s ' ' | cut -d' ' -f5
#        ^^^^^^^^^^^^   ^^^^^^^^^   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
#              |            |             |
#              |            |       get 5th field
#              |            |
#              |        squeeze spaces
#              |
#        avoid grep itself to appear in the list