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.TH SPLIT "1P" 2013 "IEEE/The Open Group" "POSIX Programmer's Manual"

.SH 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.

.SH NAME

split

\(em split files into pieces

.SH SYNOPSIS

.LP

.nf

split \fB[\fR\(mil \fIline_count\fB] [\fR\(mia \fIsuffix_length\fB] [\fIfile\fB[\fIname\fB]]\fR

.P

split \(mib \fIn\fB[\fRk|m\fB] [\fR\(mia \fIsuffix_length\fB] [\fIfile\fB[\fIname\fB]]\fR

.fi

.SH DESCRIPTION

The

.IR split

utility shall read an input file and write one or more output files.

The default size of each output file shall be 1\|000 lines. The size

of the output files can be modified by specification of the

.BR \(mib

or

.BR \(mil

options. Each output file shall be created with a unique suffix. The

suffix shall consist of exactly

.IR 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

.BR 'a' 

characters, the second with a

.BR 'b' 

replacing the last

.BR 'a' ,

and so on, until a name of all

.BR 'z' 

characters is created. By default, the names of the output files shall

be

.BR 'x' ,

followed by a two-character suffix from the character set as described

above, starting with

.BR \(dqaa\(dq ,

.BR \(dqab\(dq ,

.BR \(dqac\(dq ,

and so on, and continuing until the suffix

.BR \(dqzz\(dq ,

for a maximum of 676 files.

.P

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

.IR split

utility shall fail after creating the last file with a valid suffix;

.IR 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.

.SH OPTIONS

The

.IR split

utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2008,

.IR "Section 12.2" ", " "Utility Syntax Guidelines".

.P

The following options shall be supported:

.IP "\fB\(mia\ \fIsuffix_length\fR" 10

.br

Use

.IR suffix_length

letters to form the suffix portion of the filenames of the split

file. If

.BR \(mia

is not specified, the default suffix length shall be two. If the sum

of the

.IR name

operand and the

.IR suffix_length

option-argument would create a filename exceeding

{NAME_MAX}

bytes, an error shall result;

.IR split

shall exit with a diagnostic message and no files shall be created.

.IP "\fB\(mib\ \fIn\fR" 10

Split a file into pieces

.IR n

bytes in size.

.IP "\fB\(mib\ \fIn\fBk\fR" 10

Split a file into pieces

.IR n *1\|024

bytes in size.

.IP "\fB\(mib\ \fIn\fBm\fR" 10

Split a file into pieces

.IR n *1\|048\|576

bytes in size.

.IP "\fB\(mil\ \fIline_count\fR" 10

Specify the number of lines in each resulting file piece. The

.IR line_count

argument is an unsigned decimal integer. The default is 1\|000. If

the input does not end with a

<newline>,

the partial line shall be included in the last output file.

.SH OPERANDS

The following operands shall be supported:

.IP "\fIfile\fR" 10

The pathname of the ordinary file to be split. If no input file is

given or

.IR file

is

.BR '\(mi' ,

the standard input shall be used.

.IP "\fIname\fR" 10

The prefix to be used for each of the files resulting from the split

operation. If no

.IR name

argument is given,

.BR 'x' 

shall be used as the prefix of the output files. The combined length

of the basename of

.IR prefix

and

.IR suffix_length

cannot exceed

{NAME_MAX}

bytes. See the OPTIONS section.

.SH STDIN

See the INPUT FILES section.

.SH "INPUT FILES"

Any file can be used as input.

.SH "ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES"

The following environment variables shall affect the execution of

.IR split :

.IP "\fILANG\fP" 10

Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are

unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2008,

.IR "Section 8.2" ", " "Internationalization Variables"

for the precedence of internationalization variables used to determine

the values of locale categories.)

.IP "\fILC_ALL\fP" 10

If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the

other internationalization variables.

.IP "\fILC_CTYPE\fP" 10

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).

.IP "\fILC_MESSAGES\fP" 10

.br

Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and

contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.

.IP "\fINLSPATH\fP" 10

Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of

.IR LC_MESSAGES .

.SH "ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS"

Default.

.SH STDOUT

Not used.

.SH STDERR

The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

.SH "OUTPUT FILES"

The output files contain portions of the original input file; otherwise,

unchanged.

.SH "EXTENDED DESCRIPTION"

None.

.SH "EXIT STATUS"

The following exit values shall be returned:

.IP "\00" 6

Successful completion.

.IP >0 6

An error occurred.

.SH "CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS"

Default.

.LP

.IR "The following sections are informative."

.SH "APPLICATION USAGE"

None.

.SH EXAMPLES

In the following examples

.BR foo

is a text file that contains 5\|000 lines.

.IP " 1." 4

Create five files,

.BR xaa ,

.BR xab ,

.BR xac ,

.BR xad ,

and

.BR xae :

.RS 4 

.sp

.RS 4

.nf

\fB

split foo

.fi \fR

.P

.RE

.RE

.IP " 2." 4

Create five files, but the suffixed portion of the created

files consists of three letters,

.BR xaaa ,

.BR xaab ,

.BR xaac ,

.BR xaad ,

and

.BR xaae :

.RS 4 

.sp

.RS 4

.nf

\fB

split \(mia 3 foo

.fi \fR

.P

.RE

.RE

.IP " 3." 4

Create three files with four-letter suffixes and a supplied prefix,

.BR bar_aaaa ,

.BR bar_aaab ,

and

.BR bar_aaac :

.RS 4 

.sp

.RS 4

.nf

\fB

split \(mia 4 \(mil 2000 foo bar_

.fi \fR

.P

.RE

.RE

.IP " 4." 4

Create as many files as are necessary to contain at most 20*1\|024

bytes, each with the default prefix of

.BR x

and a five-letter suffix:

.RS 4 

.sp

.RS 4

.nf

\fB

split \(mia 5 \(mib 20k foo

.fi \fR

.P

.RE

.RE

.SH RATIONALE

The

.BR \(mib

option was added to provide a mechanism for splitting files other than

by lines. While most uses of the

.BR \(mib

option are for transmitting files over networks, some believed it would

have additional uses.

.P

The

.BR \(mia

option was added to overcome the limitation of being able to create

only 676 files.

.P

Consideration was given to deleting this utility, using the rationale

that the functionality provided by this utility is available via the

.IR csplit

utility (see

.IR "\fIcsplit\fR\^").

Upon reconsideration of the purpose of the User Portability Utilities

option, it was decided to retain both this utility and the

.IR csplit

utility because users use both utilities and have historical

expectations of their behavior. Furthermore, the splitting on byte

boundaries in

.IR split

cannot be duplicated with the historical

.IR csplit .

.P

The text ``\c

.IR split

shall not delete the files it created with valid suffixes'' would

normally be assumed, but since the related utility,

.IR csplit ,

does delete files under some circumstances, the historical behavior of

.IR split

is made explicit to avoid misinterpretation.

.P

Earlier versions of this standard allowed a

.BR \(mi \c

.IR line_count

option. This form is no longer specified by POSIX.1\(hy2008 but may be

present in some implementations.

.SH "FUTURE DIRECTIONS"

None.

.SH "SEE ALSO"

.IR "\fIcsplit\fR\^"

.P

The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2008,

.IR "Chapter 8" ", " "Environment Variables",

.IR "Section 12.2" ", " "Utility Syntax Guidelines"

.SH 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 .