1SPLIT(1P) POSIX Programmer's Manual SPLIT(1P)
2
6 This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux
7 implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding
8 Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
9 not be implemented on Linux.
10
13 split — split files into pieces
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16 split [−l line_count] [−a suffix_length] [file[name]]
17 split −b n[k|m] [−a suffix_length] [file[name]]
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21 The split utility shall read an input file and write one or more output
22 files. The default size of each output file shall be 1000 lines. The
23 size of the output files can be modified by specification of the −b or
24 −l options. Each output file shall be created with a unique suffix. The
25 suffix shall consist of exactly suffix_length lowercase letters from
26 the POSIX locale. The letters of the suffix shall be used as if they
27 were a base-26 digit system, with the first suffix to be created con‐
28 sisting of all 'a' characters, the second with a 'b' replacing the last
29 'a', and so on, until a name of all 'z' characters is created. By
30 default, the names of the output files shall be 'x', followed by a two-
31 character suffix from the character set as described above, starting
32 with "aa", "ab", "ac", and so on, and continuing until the suffix "zz",
33 for a maximum of 676 files.
34 If the number of files required exceeds the maximum allowed by the suf‐
36 fix length provided, such that the last allowable file would be larger
37 than the requested size, the split utility shall fail after creating
38 the last file with a valid suffix; split shall not delete the files it
39 created with valid suffixes. If the file limit is not exceeded, the
40 last file created shall contain the remainder of the input file, and
41 may be smaller than the requested size.
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44 The split utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of
45 POSIX.1‐2008, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.
46 The following options shall be supported:
48 −a suffix_length
50 Use suffix_length letters to form the suffix portion of the
51 filenames of the split file. If −a is not specified, the
52 default suffix length shall be two. If the sum of the name
53 operand and the suffix_length option-argument would create a
54 filename exceeding {NAME_MAX} bytes, an error shall result;
55 split shall exit with a diagnostic message and no files shall
56 be created.
57 −b n Split a file into pieces n bytes in size.
59 −b nk Split a file into pieces n*1024 bytes in size.
61 −b nm Split a file into pieces n*1048576 bytes in size.
63 −l line_count
65 Specify the number of lines in each resulting file piece. The
66 line_count argument is an unsigned decimal integer. The
67 default is 1000. If the input does not end with a <newline>,
68 the partial line shall be included in the last output file.
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71 The following operands shall be supported:
72 file The pathname of the ordinary file to be split. If no input
74 file is given or file is '−', the standard input shall be
75 used.
76 name The prefix to be used for each of the files resulting from
78 the split operation. If no name argument is given, 'x' shall
79 be used as the prefix of the output files. The combined
80 length of the basename of prefix and suffix_length cannot
81 exceed {NAME_MAX} bytes. See the OPTIONS section.
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84 See the INPUT FILES section.
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87 Any file can be used as input.
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90 The following environment variables shall affect the execution of
91 split:
92 LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization vari‐
94 ables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions vol‐
95 ume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 8.2, Internationalization Vari‐
96 ables for the precedence of internationalization variables
97 used to determine the values of locale categories.)
98 LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of
100 all the other internationalization variables.
101 LC_CTYPE Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of
103 bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as
104 opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input
105 files).
106 LC_MESSAGES
108 Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format
109 and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard
110 error.
111 NLSPATH Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing
113 of LC_MESSAGES.
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116 Default.
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119 Not used.
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122 The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
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125 The output files contain portions of the original input file; other‐
126 wise, unchanged.
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129 None.
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132 The following exit values shall be returned:
133 0 Successful completion.
135 >0 An error occurred.
137
139 Default.
140 The following sections are informative.
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144 None.
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147 In the following examples foo is a text file that contains 5000 lines.
148 1. Create five files, xaa, xab, xac, xad, and xae:
150 split foo
152 2. Create five files, but the suffixed portion of the created files
154 consists of three letters, xaaa, xaab, xaac, xaad, and xaae:
155 split −a 3 foo
157 3. Create three files with four-letter suffixes and a supplied prefix,
159 bar_aaaa, bar_aaab, and bar_aaac:
160 split −a 4 −l 2000 foo bar_
162 4. Create as many files as are necessary to contain at most 20*1024
164 bytes, each with the default prefix of x and a five-letter suffix:
165 split −a 5 −b 20k foo
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169 The −b option was added to provide a mechanism for splitting files
170 other than by lines. While most uses of the −b option are for transmit‐
171 ting files over networks, some believed it would have additional uses.
172 The −a option was added to overcome the limitation of being able to
174 create only 676 files.
175 Consideration was given to deleting this utility, using the rationale
177 that the functionality provided by this utility is available via the
178 csplit utility (see csplit). Upon reconsideration of the purpose of
179 the User Portability Utilities option, it was decided to retain both
180 this utility and the csplit utility because users use both utilities
181 and have historical expectations of their behavior. Furthermore, the
182 splitting on byte boundaries in split cannot be duplicated with the
183 historical csplit.
184 The text ``split shall not delete the files it created with valid suf‐
186 fixes'' would normally be assumed, but since the related utility,
187 csplit, does delete files under some circumstances, the historical
188 behavior of split is made explicit to avoid misinterpretation.
189 Earlier versions of this standard allowed a −line_count option. This
191 form is no longer specified by POSIX.1‐2008 but may be present in some
192 implementations.
193
195 None.
196
198 csplit
199 The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Chapter 8, Environment
201 Variables, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines
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204 Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
205 from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
206 -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
207 Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electri‐
208 cal and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. (This is
209 POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the
210 event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
211 The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
212 is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
213 at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
214 Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are
216 most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
217 files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.ker‐
218 nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
219IEEE/The Open Group 2013 SPLIT(1P)