[mesa-users] how to extract columns from existing log file

[Bill Paxton]

Some unix wizard out there will have a solution for this one I'm sure.  

I have a monster history.data file (100s of MB) with lots and lots of columns, most of which are unneeded for my current task --
it would be lovely to have a simple way to extract a small subset of the columns to create a much smaller history.data file.
ideally, i'd give this marvelous tool a file with a list of the column names that i want and it would do the rest.

and of course i don't want to have to do any work to create this tool for myself.  i want Santa Claus to give it to me.  now.  ;D

Thanks,
Bill