xref: /original-bsd/usr.bin/split/split.1 (revision e58c8952)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994
2.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" %sccs.include.redist.roff%
5.\"
6.\"	@(#)split.1	8.3 (Berkeley) 04/16/94
7.\"
8.Dd
9.Dt SPLIT 1
10.Os
11.Sh NAME
12.Nm split
13.Nd split a file into pieces
14.Sh SYNOPSIS
15.Nm split
16.Op Fl b Ar byte_count[k|m]
17.Op Fl l Ar line_count
18.Op Ar file Op Ar name
19.Sh DESCRIPTION
20The
21.Nm split
22utility reads the given
23.Ar file
24(or standard input if no file is specified)
25and breaks it up into files of 1000 lines each.
26.Pp
27The options are as follows:
28.Bl -tag -width Ds
29.It Fl b
30Create smaller files
31.Ar byte_count
32bytes in length.
33If
34.Dq Li k
35is appended to the number, the file is split into
36.Ar byte_count
37kilobyte pieces.
38If
39.Dq Li m
40is appended to the number, the file is split into
41.Ar byte_count
42megabyte pieces.
43.It Fl l
44Create smaller files
45.Ar n
46lines in length.
47.El
48.Pp
49If additional arguments are specified, the first is used as the name
50of the input file which is to be split.
51If a second additional argument is specified, it is used as a prefix
52for the names of the files into which the file is split.
53In this case, each file into which the file is split is named by the
54prefix followed by a lexically ordered suffix in the range of
55.Dq Li aa-zz .
56.Pp
57If the
58.Ar name
59argument is not specified, the file is split into lexically ordered
60files named in the range of
61.Dq Li xaa-zzz .
62.Sh BUGS
63For historical reasons, if you specify
64.Ar name ,
65.Nm split
66can only create 676 separate
67files.
68The default naming convention allows 2028 separate files.
69.Sh HISTORY
70A
71.Nm split
72command appeared in
73.At v6 .
74