SPLIT(1)

NAME
split - split a file into pieces

SYNOPSIS
split [-a suffix_length] [ -b byte_count[k|m] | -l line_count | -n chunk_count] [file [name]]

DESCRIPTION
The split utility reads the given file and breaks it up into files of 1000 lines each. If file is a single dash or absent, split reads from the standard input. file itself is not altered.

The options are as follows:

-a  Use suffix_length letters to form the suffix of the file name.

-b  Create smaller files byte_count bytes in length. If ‘k’ is appended to the number, the file is split into byte_count kilobyte pieces. If ‘m’ is appended to the number, the file is split into byte_count megabyte pieces.

-l  Create smaller files line_count lines in length.

-n  Split file into chunk_count smaller files.

If additional arguments are specified, the first is used as the name of the input file which is to be split. If a second additional argument is specified, it is used as a prefix for the names of the files into which the file is split. In this case, each file into which the file is split is named by the prefix followed by a lexically ordered suffix using suffix_length characters in the range “a-z”. If -a is not specified, two letters are used as the initial suffix. If the output does not fit into the resulting number of files, then the suffix length is automatically extended as needed such that all output files continue to sort in lexical order.

If the name argument is not specified, ‘x’ is used.

STANDARDS
The split utility conforms to p1003.1-2001.

HISTORY
A split command appeared in AT&T UNIX.

The -a option was introduced in NetBSD 2.0. Before that, if name was not specified, split would vary the first letter of the filename to increase the number of possible output files. The -a option makes this unnecessary.