Split (Unix)

split is a Unix utility most commonly used to split a file into two or more smaller files.

Usage

The command-syntax is:

split (optional parameters) (input filename) (output filename)

The default behavior of split is to generate output files of up to 1000 lines. The files are named by appending aa, ab, ac, etc. to output filename. If output filename is not given, the default filename of x is used, for example, xaa, xab, etc. When a hyphen (-) is used instead of input filename, data is derived from standard input.

To join the files back together again use the cat command

cat xaa xab xac > filename

or

cat xa[a-c] > filename

Additional program options permit a maximum character count (instead of a line count), a maximum line length, how many incrementing characters in generated filenames, and whether to use letters or digits.

Manual

• split(1): split a file into pieces – Linux man page

This Unix-related article is a stub. You can help by expanding it.