SPLIT(1) User Commands SPLIT(1)

NAME

split - split a file into pieces

SYNOPSIS

split [-linecount | -l linecount] [-a suffixlength]
[file [name]]


split [-b n | nk | nm] [-a suffixlength] [file [name]]

DESCRIPTION

The split utility reads file and writes it in linecount-line pieces
into a set of output-files. The name of the first output-file is name
with aa appended, and so on lexicographically, up to zz (a maximum of
676 files). The maximum length of name is 2 characters less than the
maximum filename length allowed by the filesystem. See statvfs(2). If
no output name is given, x is used as the default (output-files will
be called xaa, xab, and so forth).

OPTIONS

The following options are supported:

-linecount | -l linecount

Number of lines in each piece. Defaults to 1000 lines.


-a suffixlength

Uses suffixlength letters to form the suffix portion of the
filenames of the split file. If -a is not specified, the default
suffix length is 2. If the sum of the name operand and the
suffixlength option-argument would create a filename exceeding
NAME_MAX bytes, an error will result; split will exit with a
diagnostic message and no files will be created.


-b n

Splits a file into pieces n bytes in size.


-b nk

Splits a file into pieces n*1024 bytes in size.


-b nm

Splits a file into pieces n*1048576 bytes in size.

OPERANDS

The following operands are supported:

file
The path name of the ordinary file to be split. If no input
file is given or file is -, the standard input will be used.


name
The prefix to be used for each of the files resulting from
the split operation. If no name argument is given, x will be
used as the prefix of the output files. The combined length
of the basename of prefix and suffixlength cannot exceed
NAME_MAX bytes. See OPTIONS.

USAGE

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

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

See environ(7) for descriptions of the following environment
variables that affect the execution of split: LANG, LC_ALL, 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 | Committed |
+--------------------+--------------------+
|Standard | See standards(7). |
+--------------------+--------------------+

SEE ALSO

csplit(1), statvfs(2), attributes(7), environ(7), largefile(7),
standards(7)

April 16, 1999 SPLIT(1)