.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991 Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" %sccs.include.redist.roff%
.\"
.\"	@(#)split.1	6.4 (Berkeley) 07/29/91
.\"
.Dd 
.Dt SPLIT 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm split
.Nd split a file into pieces
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm split
.Op Fl Ns Ar n
.Op Fl b Ar bytes
.Op Ar file Op Ar name
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm split
utility reads the given
.Ar file
and splits it up in to
smaller files.
.Pp
Available options:
.Bl -tag -width "bb bytesx"
.It Fl Ns Ar lines
Create files of length
.Fl Ns Ar n
lines long.
.It Fl b Ar bytes
Create files of length
.Ar bytes .
If no output file length is specified, the file size
will default to a lenght of 1000 lines.
.El
.Pp
Available operands:
.Bl -tag -width name
.It Fl
Read from the standard input.
.It Ar file
A pathname specifying the
.Ar file 
to be split.  If no
.Ar file
operand is given,
.Nm split
reads from the standard input.
.It Ar name
If the
.Ar name
operand is given,
the output files will begin with the prefix
.Ar name
and each sequential portion of the split file
receives a lexically ordered suffix
in the range of 
.Bq Em aa-zz .
If the operand
.Ar name
is not specified,
the default prefix of
.Em x
is be used.
.Pp
.Sh BUGS
If you provide
.Ar name ,
.Nm split
can only create 676 separate
files.  The default naming convention allows 2028 separate files.
.Sh HISTORY
A
.Nm split
command appeared in
.At v6 .