[Go to CFHT Home Page] Man Pages
Back to Software Index  BORDER=0Manpage Top Level
    split(1) manual page Table of Contents

Name

split - split a file into pieces

Synopsis

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

split -b n[ k|m ] [ -a suffixlength ] [ file [ name ] ]

Availability

SUNWesu

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
Use 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
Split a file into pieces n bytes in size.
-b nk
Split a file into pieces n*1024 bytes in size.
-b nm
Split 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.

Environment

See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables that affect the execution of split: LC_CTYPE , LC_MESSAGES , and NLSPATH .

Exit Status

The following exit values are returned:
  1. Successful completion.
    >0
    An error occurred.

    See Also

    csplit(1) , statvfs(2) , environ(5)

    Table of Contents