$ echo "a:b" | busybox cut -d : -f 1 a $ BUT if I pipe output somewhere or redirect it to file then output is incorrect: $ echo "a:b" | busybox cut -d : -f 1 | cat $ busybox-1.7.4 is not affected (at least I can't reproduce the bug). Maybe the bug http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3400 is relevant. Portage 2.1.4.4 (default/linux/x86/2008.0/developer, gcc-4.1.2, glibc-2.6.1-r0, 2.6.25-gentoo-r7 i686) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.25-gentoo-r7 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1600MHz Timestamp of tree: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:16:01 +0000 distcc 2.18.3 i686-pc-linux-gnu (protocols 1 and 2) (default port 3632) [enabled] ccache version 2.4 [enabled] app-shells/bash: 3.2_p33 dev-java/java-config: 1.3.7, 2.1.6 dev-lang/python: 2.5.2-r6 dev-python/pycrypto: 2.0.1-r6 dev-util/ccache: 2.4-r7 sys-apps/baselayout: 1.12.11.1 sys-apps/sandbox: 1.2.18.1-r2 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.61-r2 sys-devel/automake: 1.5, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r2, 1.10.1 sys-devel/binutils: 2.18-r3 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.0-r4 sys-devel/libtool: 1.5.26 virtual/os-headers: 2.6.23-r3 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium-m -pipe" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/php/apache2-php5/ext-active/ /etc/php/cgi-php5/ext-active/ /etc/php/cli-php5/ext-active/ /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/terminfo /etc/udev/rules.d" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium-m -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="buildpkg ccache collision-protect cvs digest distcc distlocks getbinpkg metadata-transfer multilib-strict parallel-fetch sandbox sfperms sign splitdebug strict unmerge-orphans userfetch userpriv usersandbox" GENTOO_MIRRORS=" http://mirror.yandex.ru/gentoo-distfiles http://fido.online.kz/gentoo http://mirror.qubenet.net/mirror/gentoo " LANG="ru_RU.UTF-8" LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1" LINGUAS="en ru" MAKEOPTS="-j3" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/portage/local/layman/sunrise /usr/portage/local/layman/gnash-cvs /usr/portage/local/layman/pro-audio /usr/local/overlay" SYNC="rsync://rsync.europe.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="X aac acl acpi adns alsa apache2 async bash-completion berkdb bluetooth bzip2 cairo caps cdda cdr cgi cli cracklib crypt cscope ctype cups curl dbus djvu doc dri dvd dvdr dvdread eds emboss encode evo exif fam fastcgi firefox flac gdbm gif gtk hal iconv isdnlog jpeg libnotify logrotate mad mailwrapper midi mikmod mmap mmx modplug mp3 mpeg mudflap mysql ncurses network-cron new-login nls nptl nptlonly ogg opengl pam pcmcia pcre pdf perl png ppds pppd python qt3 qt3support qt4 quicktime readline reflection scanner sdl sensord session slang spell spl sse sse2 ssl startup-notification svg sysfs theora threads tiff truetype unicode usb vim-syntax vorbis win32codecs x86 xft xinerama xml xorg xscreensaver xulrunner xv xvid zlib" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1 emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="evdev void keyboard mouse synaptics" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LINGUAS="en ru" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="dummy radeon vesa vga" Unset: CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS
This seems fixed with new busybox bumps.