Format
split [–a n] [–l n] [file [prefix]]
split –b n[bkm] [–a n] [file [prefix]]
split [–n] [–a n] file [prefix]
Description
split breaks
up a file into a set of files. It starts a new file every time
it has copied 1000 lines.
split names
the files that it creates as a prefix followed by a suffix. x is
the prefix unless you specify a different prefix on
the command line. Unless altered by the following options, the suffix
begins as aa and is incremented with each new file.
By default, therefore, the first file is xaa followed
by xab, and so on.
Options
- –a n
- Uses a suffix n letters long. The default
is two.
- –b n[bkm]
- Splits the file every n units. The default
unit size is bytes. When you follow n with b, k,
or m, split uses
a corresponding unit size of 512 bytes, 1K (1024 bytes), or 1 megabyte
(1 048 576 bytes).
- –l n
- Splits the file every n lines.
- –n
- Is an obsolete version of the –l option.
If the file is – (dash)
or if no file is specified, split reads
the standard input (stdin).
Localization
split uses
the following localization environment variables:
- LANG
- LC_ALL
- LC_CTYPE
- LC_MESSAGES
- NLSPATH
See Localization for more
information.
Exit values
- 0
- Successful completion
- 1
- Failure due to any of the following:
- Error opening input or output file
- Missing number after –a
- Incorrect –a option
- Missing byte count after –b
- Invalid byte count specification
- Invalid count specification
- Unknown option
- Out of memory for binary split buffer
- Read error on input file
- Write error on output file
- Too many names generated
Portability
POSIX.2 User Portability Extension, X/Open Portability Guide, UNIX systems,
The b suffix
of the –b option is an extension to
the POSIX.2 standard.
Related information
csplit