Section 1 · User commands

split.1

Package: coreutils-common

SPLIT

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
AUTHOR
REPORTING BUGS
COPYRIGHT
SEE ALSO

NAME

split − split a file into pieces

SYNOPSIS

split [OPTION]… [FILE [PREFIX]]

DESCRIPTION

Output pieces of FILE to PREFIXaa, PREFIXab, …; default size is 1000 lines, and default PREFIX is ’x’.

With no FILE, or when FILE is −, read standard input.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. **
−a**, −−suffix−length=N

generate suffixes of length N (default 2)

−−additional−suffix=SUFFIX

append an additional SUFFIX to file names

−b, −−bytes=SIZE

put SIZE bytes per output file

−C, −−line−bytes=SIZE

put at most SIZE bytes of records per output file


	−d		use numeric suffixes starting at 0, not alphabetic

−−numeric−suffixes[=FROM]

same as −d, but allow setting the start value


	−x		use hex suffixes starting at 0, not alphabetic

−−hex−suffixes[=FROM]

same as −x, but allow setting the start value

−e, −−elide−empty−files

do not generate empty output files with ’−n’

−−filter=COMMAND

write to shell COMMAND; file name is $FILE

−l, −−lines=NUMBER

put NUMBER lines/records per output file

−n, −−number=CHUNKS

generate CHUNKS output files; see explanation below

−t, −−separator=SEP

use SEP instead of newline as the record separator; ’\0’ (zero) specifies the NUL character

−u, −−unbuffered

immediately copy input to output with ’−n r/…’

−−verbose

print a diagnostic just before each output file is opened


	−−help		display this help and exit

−−version

output version information and exit

The SIZE argument is an integer and optional unit (example: 10K is 10*1024). Units are K,M,G,T,P,E,Z,Y,R,Q (powers of 1024) or KB,MB,… (powers of 1000). Binary prefixes can be used, too: KiB=K, MiB=M, and so on.

CHUNKS may be:


	N		split into N files based on size of input
	K/N		output Kth of N to stdout
	l/N		split into N files without splitting lines/records
	l/K/N		output Kth of N to stdout without splitting lines/records
	r/N		like ’l’ but use round robin distribution
	r/K/N		likewise but only output Kth of N to stdout

AUTHOR

Written by Torbjorn Granlund and Richard M. Stallman.

REPORTING BUGS

GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.