phpMan

/* Void Main's man pages */

{ phpMan } else { main(); }

SPLIT(1P) POSIX Programmer's Manual SPLIT(1P)

PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (con-
sult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on
Linux.

NAME
split - split files into pieces

SYNOPSIS
split [-l line_count][-a suffix_length][file[name]]

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

DESCRIPTION
The split utility shall read an input file and write one or more output files. The default size of each output file shall
be 1000 lines. The size of the output files can be modified by specification of the -b or -l options. Each output file
shall be created with a unique suffix. The suffix shall consist of exactly suffix_length lowercase letters from the POSIX
locale. The letters of the suffix shall be used as if they were a base-26 digit system, with the first suffix to be cre-
ated consisting of all 'a' characters, the second with a 'b' replacing the last 'a', and so on, until a name of all 'z'
characters is created. By default, the names of the output files shall be 'x', followed by a two-character suffix from
the character set as described above, starting with "aa", "ab", "ac", and so on, and continuing until the suffix "zz",
for a maximum of 676 files.

If the number of files required exceeds the maximum allowed by the suffix length provided, such that the last allowable
file would be larger than the requested size, the split utility shall fail after creating the last file with a valid suf-
fix; split shall not delete the files it created with valid suffixes. If the file limit is not exceeded, the last file
created shall contain the remainder of the input file, and may be smaller than the requested size.

OPTIONS
The split utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax
Guidelines.

The following options shall be supported:

-a suffix_length

Use suffix_length letters to form the suffix portion of the filenames of the split file. If -a is not specified,
the default suffix length shall be two. If the sum of the name operand and the suffix_length option-argument would
create a filename exceeding {NAME_MAX} bytes, an error shall result; split shall exit with a diagnostic message
and no files shall 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.

-l line_count
Specify the number of lines in each resulting file piece. The line_count argument is an unsigned decimal integer.
The default is 1000. If the input does not end with a <newline>, the partial line shall be included in the last
output file.

OPERANDS
The following operands shall be supported:

file The pathname of the ordinary file to be split. If no input file is given or file is '-', the standard input shall
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'
shall be used as the prefix of the output files. The combined length of the basename of prefix and suffix_length
cannot exceed {NAME_MAX} bytes. See the OPTIONS section.

STDIN
See the INPUT FILES section.

INPUT FILES
Any file can be used as input.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of split:

LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions
volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for the precedence of international-
ization variables used to determine the values of locale categories.)

LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization variables.

LC_CTYPE
Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-
byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input files).

LC_MESSAGES
Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to stan-
dard error.

NLSPATH
Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES .

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
Default.

STDOUT
Not used.

STDERR
The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES
The output files contain portions of the original input file; otherwise, unchanged.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
None.

EXIT STATUS
The following exit values shall be returned:

0 Successful completion.

>0 An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
Default.

The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE
None.

EXAMPLES
In the following examples foo is a text file that contains 5000 lines.

1. Create five files, xaa, xab, xac, xad, and xae:

split foo

2. Create five files, but the suffixed portion of the created files consists of three letters, xaaa, xaab, xaac, xaad,
and xaae:

split -a 3 foo

3. Create three files with four-letter suffixes and a supplied prefix, bar_aaaa, bar_aaab, and bar_aaac:

split -a 4 -l 2000 foo bar_

4. Create as many files as are necessary to contain at most 20*1024 bytes, each with the default prefix of x and a five-
letter suffix:

split -a 5 -b 20k foo

RATIONALE
The -b option was added to provide a mechanism for splitting files other than by lines. While most uses of the -b option
are for transmitting files over networks, some believed it would have additional uses.

The -a option was added to overcome the limitation of being able to create only 676 files.

Consideration was given to deleting this utility, using the rationale that the functionality provided by this utility is
available via the csplit utility (see csplit ). Upon reconsideration of the purpose of the User Portability Extension, it
was decided to retain both this utility and the csplit utility because users use both utilities and have historical
expectations of their behavior. Furthermore, the splitting on byte boundaries in split cannot be duplicated with the his-
torical csplit.

The text " split shall not delete the files it created with valid suffixes" would normally be assumed, but since the
related utility, csplit, does delete files under some circumstances, the historical behavior of split is made explicit to
avoid misinterpretation.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.