Manual Pages  — SPLIT

split – split a file into pieces

SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION ENVIRONMENT EXIT STATUS EXAMPLES SEE ALSO STANDARDS HISTORY

split [-cd] [-l line_count] [-a suffix_length] [file [prefix]]
split [-cd] -b byte_count [ K|k|M|m|G|g] [-a suffix_length] [file [prefix]]
split [-cd] -n chunk_count [-a suffix_length] [file [prefix]]
split [-cd] -p pattern [-a suffix_length] [file [prefix]]

The split utility reads the given file and breaks it up into files of 1000 lines each (if no options are specified), leaving the file unchanged. If file is a single dash ('-') or absent, split reads from the standard input.

The options are as follows:

-a suffix_length
	Use suffix_length letters to form the suffix of the file name.
-b byte_count[
	K|k|M|m|G|g] Create split files byte_count bytes in length. If k or K is appended to the number, the file is split into byte_count kilobyte pieces. If m or M is appended to the number, the file is split into byte_count megabyte pieces. If g or G is appended to the number, the file is split into byte_count gigabyte pieces.
-c
	Continue creating files and do not overwrite existing output files.
-d
	Use a numeric suffix instead of a alphabetic suffix.
-l line_count
	Create split files line_count lines in length.
-n chunk_count
	Split file into chunk_count smaller files. The first n - 1 files will be of size (size of file / chunk_count ) and the last file will contain the remaining bytes.
-p pattern
	The file is split whenever an input line matches pattern, which is interpreted as an extended regular expression. The matching line will be the first line of the next output file. This option is incompatible with the -b and -l options.

If additional arguments are specified, the first is used as the name of the input file which is to be split. If a second additional argument is specified, it is used as a prefix for the names of the files into which the file is split. In this case, each file into which the file is split is named by the prefix followed by a lexically ordered suffix using suffix_length characters in the range "a-z". If -a is not specified, two letters are used as the initial suffix. If the output does not fit into the resulting number of files and the -d flag is not specified, then the suffix length is automatically extended as needed such that all output files continue to sort in lexical order.

If the prefix argument is not specified, the file is split into lexically ordered files named with the prefix "x" and with suffixes as above.

By default, split will overwrite any existing output files. If the -c flag is specified, split will instead create files with names that do not already exist.

The utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

Split input into as many files as needed, so that each file contains at most 2 lines:

$ echo -e "first line econd line hird line orth line" | split -l2

Split input in chunks of 10 bytes using numeric prefixes for file names. This generates two files of 10 bytes (x00 and x01) and a third file (x02) with the remaining 2 bytes:

$ echo -e "This is 22 bytes long" | split -d -b10

Split input generating 6 files:

$ echo -e "This is 22 bytes long" | split -n 6

Split input creating a new file every time a line matches the regular expression for a "t" followed by either "a" or "u" thus creating two files:

$ echo -e "stack tock tuck nother line" | split -p 't[au]'

The split utility conforms to IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 ("POSIX.1").

A split command appeared in AT&T v3 .

Before FreeBSD 14, pattern and line matching only operated on lines shorter than 65,536 bytes.