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PROLOG | NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | OPERANDS | STDIN | INPUT FILES | ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES | ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS | STDOUT | STDERR | OUTPUT FILES | EXTENDED DESCRIPTION | EXIT STATUS | CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS | APPLICATION USAGE | EXAMPLES | RATIONALE | FUTURE DIRECTIONS | SEE ALSO | COPYRIGHT |
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SPLIT(1P) POSIX Programmer's Manual SPLIT(1P)
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The
Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the
corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or
the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
split — split a file into pieces
split [-l line_count] [-a suffix_length] [file [name]]
split -b n[k|m] [-a suffix_length] [file [name]]
The split utility shall read an input file and write zero 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 created 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 suffix; 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. If the
input is an empty file, no output file shall be created and this
shall not be considered to be an error.
The split utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of
POSIX.1‐2017, 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.
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.
See the INPUT FILES section.
Any file can be used as input.
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 POSIX.1‐2017, Section 8.2,
Internationalization Variables for the precedence of
internationalization 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
standard error.
NLSPATH Determine the location of message catalogs for the
processing of LC_MESSAGES.
Default.
Not used.
The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
The output files contain portions of the original input file;
otherwise, unchanged.
None.
The following exit values shall be returned:
0 Successful completion.
>0 An error occurred.
Default.
The following sections are informative.
None.
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
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(1p)). Upon
reconsideration of the purpose of the User Portability Utilities
option, 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 historical
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.
Earlier versions of this standard allowed a -line_count option.
This form is no longer specified by POSIX.1‐2008 but may be
present in some implementations.
None.
csplit(1p)
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Chapter 8,
Environment Variables, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic
form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information
Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The
Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright
(C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,
Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between
this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard,
the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee
document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page
are most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of
the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2017 SPLIT(1P)
Pages that refer to this page: csplit(1p)
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HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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