xref: /openbsd/usr.bin/split/split.1 (revision 274d7c50)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: split.1,v 1.22 2015/02/28 21:51:56 bentley Exp $
2.\"	$NetBSD: split.1,v 1.5 1994/12/21 08:20:35 jtc Exp $
3.\"
4.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994
5.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
6.\"
7.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
8.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
9.\" are met:
10.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
11.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
12.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
13.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
14.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
15.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
16.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
17.\"    without specific prior written permission.
18.\"
19.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
20.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
21.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
22.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
23.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
24.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
25.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
26.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
27.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
28.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
29.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
30.\"
31.\"	@(#)split.1	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/16/94
32.\"
33.Dd $Mdocdate: February 28 2015 $
34.Dt SPLIT 1
35.Os
36.Sh NAME
37.Nm split
38.Nd split a file into pieces
39.Sh SYNOPSIS
40.Nm split
41.Op Fl a Ar suffix_length
42.br
43.Oo
44.Fl b
45.Sm off
46.Ar byte_count Op Cm k | m
47.Sm on
48.No \&| Fl l Ar line_count
49.No \&| Fl p Ar pattern
50.Oc
51.Op Ar file Op Ar name
52.Sh DESCRIPTION
53The
54.Nm
55utility reads the given
56.Ar file ,
57or standard input if no file is specified,
58and breaks it up into files of 1000 lines each.
59.Ar file
60itself is not altered.
61.Pp
62The options are as follows:
63.Bl -tag -width Ds
64.It Fl a Ar suffix_length
65Use
66.Ar suffix_length
67letters to form the suffix of the file name
68(see below).
69The default suffix length is 2.
70.It Xo
71.Fl b
72.Sm off
73.Ar byte_count
74.Op Cm k | m
75.Sm on
76.Xc
77Create files
78.Ar byte_count
79bytes in length.
80If
81.Sq k
82is appended to the number, the file is split into
83.Ar byte_count
84kilobyte pieces.
85If
86.Sq m
87is appended to the number, the file is split into
88.Ar byte_count
89megabyte pieces.
90.It Fl l Ar line_count
91Create files
92.Ar line_count
93lines in length.
94.It Fl p Ar pattern
95The file is split whenever an input line matches
96.Ar pattern ,
97which is interpreted as an extended regular expression.
98The matching line will be the first line of the next output file.
99This option is incompatible with the
100.Fl b
101and
102.Fl l
103options.
104.El
105.Pp
106If
107.Ar name
108is specified,
109it is used as a prefix
110for the names of the files into which the file is split.
111In this case, each file into which the file is split is named by the
112prefix followed by a lexically ordered suffix using
113.Ar suffix_length
114characters in the range
115.Dq a-z .
116.Pp
117If the
118.Ar name
119argument is not specified, the file is split into lexically ordered
120files named with the prefixes
121.Sq x ,
122.Sq y ,
123and
124.Sq z .
125.Sh EXIT STATUS
126.Ex -std split
127.Sh SEE ALSO
128.Xr csplit 1 ,
129.Xr re_format 7
130.Sh STANDARDS
131The
132.Nm
133utility is compliant with the
134.St -p1003.1-2008
135specification.
136.Pp
137The flag
138.Op Fl p ,
139as well as the
140.Sq y
141and
142.Sq z
143prefixes in the absence of a
144.Ar name
145parameter,
146are an extension to that specification.
147.Sh HISTORY
148A
149.Nm
150command appeared in
151.At v3 .
152.Sh BUGS
153The maximum line length for matching patterns is 65536.
154