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SPLIT(1) User Commands SPLIT(1)

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.

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 records per output file
use numeric suffixes starting at 0, not alphabetic
same as -d, but allow setting the start value
use hex suffixes starting at 0, not alphabetic
same as -x, but allow setting the start value
do not generate empty output files with '-n'
write to shell COMMAND; file name is $FILE
put NUMBER lines/records per output file
generate CHUNKS output files; see explanation below
use SEP instead of newline as the record separator; '\0' (zero) specifies the NUL character
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

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:

split into N files based on size of input
output Kth of N to stdout
split into N files without splitting lines/records
output Kth of N to stdout without splitting lines/records
like 'l' but use round robin distribution
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 © 2023 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.

SEE ALSO

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/split>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) split invocation'

March 2024 GNU coreutils 9.4