CSPLIT(1) User Commands CSPLIT(1)

NAME

csplit - split files based on context

SYNOPSIS

csplit [-ks] [-f prefix] [-n number] file arg1... argn

DESCRIPTION

The csplit utility reads the file named by the file operand, writes
all or part of that file into other files as directed by the arg
operands, and writes the sizes of the files.

OPTIONS

The following options are supported:

-f prefix
Names the created files prefix00, prefix01, ...,
prefixn. The default is xx00 ... xxn. If the prefix
argument would create a file name exceeding 14 bytes, an
error results. In that case, csplit exits with a
diagnostic message and no files are created.


-k
Leaves previously created files intact. By default,
csplit removes created files if an error occurs.


-n number
Uses number decimal digits to form filenames for the
file pieces. The default is 2.


-s
Suppresses the output of file size messages.

OPERANDS

The following operands are supported:

file
The path name of a text file to be split. If file is -, the
standard input will be used.


The operands arg1 ... argn can be a combination of the following:

/rexp/[offset]
Create a file using the content of the lines from
the current line up to, but not including, the line
that results from the evaluation of the regular
expression with offset, if any, applied. The
regular expression rexp must follow the rules for
basic regular expressions. Regular expressions can
include the use of '\/' and '\%'. These forms must
be properly quoted with single quotes, since "\" is
special to the shell. The optional offset must be a
positive or negative integer value representing a
number of lines. The integer value must be preceded
by + or -. If the selection of lines from an offset
expression of this type would create a file with
zero lines, or one with greater than the number of
lines left in the input file, the results are
unspecified. After the section is created, the
current line will be set to the line that results
from the evaluation of the regular expression with
any offset applied. The pattern match of rexp
always is applied from the current line to the end
of the file.


%rexp%[offset]
This operand is the same as /rexp/[offset], except
that no file will be created for the selected
section of the input file.


line_no
Create a file from the current line up to (but not
including) the line number line_no. Lines in the
file will be numbered starting at one. The current
line becomes line_no.


{num}
Repeat operand. This operand can follow any of the
operands described previously. If it follows a rexp
type operand, that operand will be applied num more
times. If it follows a line_no operand, the file
will be split every line_no lines, num times, from
that point.


An error will be reported if an operand does not reference a line
between the current position and the end of the file.

USAGE

See largefile(7) for the description of the behavior of csplit when
encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte (2^31 bytes).

EXAMPLES

Example 1: Splitting and combining files

This example creates four files, cobol00...cobol03.


example% csplit -f cobol filename \
'/procedure division/' /par5./ /par16./


After editing the split files, they can be recombined as follows:


example% cat cobol0[0-3] > filename


This example overwrites the original file.

Example 2: Splitting a file into equal parts

This example splits the file at every 100 lines, up to 10,000 lines.
The -k option causes the created files to be retained if there are
less than 10,000 lines; however, an error message would still be
printed.


example% csplit -k filename 100 {99}

Example 3: Creating a file for separate C routines

If prog.c follows the normal C coding convention (the last line of a
routine consists only of a } in the first character position), this
example creates a file for each separate C routine (up to 21) in
prog.c.


example% csplit -k prog.c '%main(%' '/^}/+1' {20}

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

See environ(7) for descriptions of the following environment
variables that affect the execution of csplit: LANG, LC_ALL,
LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.

EXIT STATUS

The following exit values are returned:

0
Successful completion.


>0
An error occurred.

ATTRIBUTES

See attributes(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:


+--------------------+-----------------+
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+--------------------+-----------------+
|CSI | Enabled |
+--------------------+-----------------+
|Interface Stability | Standard |
+--------------------+-----------------+

SEE ALSO

sed(1), split(1), attributes(7), environ(7), largefile(7),
standards(7)

DIAGNOSTICS

The diagnostic messages are self-explanatory, except for the
following:

arg - out of range
The given argument did not reference a line
between the current position and the end of
the file.


December 4, 2003 CSPLIT(1)