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SPLIT(1) User Commands SPLIT(1)

NAME

split - split a file into pieces

SYNOPSIS

split [OPTION]... [INPUT [PREFIX]]

DESCRIPTION

Output fixed-size pieces of INPUT to PREFIXaa, PREFIXab, ...; default size is 1000 lines, and default PREFIX is 'x'. With no INPUT, or when INPUT is -, read standard input.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

generate suffixes of length N (default 2)
append an additional SUFFIX to file names
put SIZE bytes per output file
put at most SIZE bytes of lines per output file
use numeric suffixes instead of alphabetic; FROM changes the start value (default 0)
do not generate empty output files with '-n'
write to shell COMMAND; file name is $FILE
put NUMBER lines per output file
generate CHUNKS output files; see explanation below
immediately copy input to output with '-n r/...'
print a diagnostic just before each output file is opened
display this help and exit
output version information and exit

SIZE is an integer and optional unit (example: 10M is 10*1024*1024). Units are K, M, G, T, P, E, Z, Y (powers of 1024) or KB, MB, ... (powers of 1000).

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 l/K/N output Kth of N to stdout without splitting lines r/N like 'l' but use round robin distribution r/K/N likewise but only output Kth of N to stdout

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

AUTHOR

Written by Torbjorn Granlund and Richard M. Stallman.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://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.

SEE ALSO

The full documentation for split is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and split programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info coreutils 'split invocation'

should give you access to the complete manual.

November 2020 GNU coreutils 8.22