PROLOG

       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.

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 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.

OPTIONS

       The  split  utility  shall  conform to the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, 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 POSIX.1‐2008, 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.

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 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.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

       None.

SEE ALSO

       csplit

       The  Base  Definitions  volume  of  POSIX.1‐2008, Chapter 8, Environment Variables, Section 12.2, Utility
       Syntax Guidelines

COPYRIGHT

       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition,
       Standard  for  Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
       Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,  Inc
       and  The  Open Group.  (This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) 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.unix.org/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 .