These docs are under active development and cover the v0.20 Kobicha security model.
Peios Learn
On this page
reference 2 min read

split

split breaks one file into several smaller files of roughly equal size.

split [options] [input [prefix]]

$ split -l 1000 big.log
$ ls
xaa  xab  xac  xad

By default split writes 1000 lines per piece, names the pieces xaa, xab, xac, … — a prefix of x followed by a two-letter suffix — and reads its input from a named file or from standard input.

To put the file back together, concatenate the pieces in order: cat xaa xab xac … > original.

How big each piece is

Choose one of these to set the piece size:

Option Each piece holds…
-l, --lines=N N lines. This is the default behaviour, with N = 1000.
-b, --bytes=SIZE SIZE bytes.
-C, --line-bytes=SIZE up to SIZE bytes, but only whole lines — never a line split across two pieces.
-n, --number=CHUNKS the input divided into a fixed number of pieces (see below).

A SIZE accepts a unit suffix: K, M, G, … as powers of 1024, or KB, MB, … as powers of 1000.

Fixed number of chunks (-n)

-n divides the input into a set number of pieces rather than fixing each piece's size. CHUNKS may be:

Form Effect
N Split into N pieces by size.
l/N Split into N pieces without splitting any line across pieces.
r/N Like l/N, but distribute lines round-robin across the pieces.
K/N Write only the Kth of N pieces, to standard output.

Naming the pieces

Option Effect
prefix (operand) The leading part of each output name. Default x.
-a, --suffix-length=N Use N characters for the suffix. Default 2.
-d, --numeric-suffixes[=START] Use numeric suffixes (00, 01, …) instead of letters, optionally from START.
-x, --hex-suffixes[=START] Use hexadecimal suffixes.
--additional-suffix=SUFFIX Append a fixed SUFFIX to every output name — for giving the pieces an extension.

Other options

Option Effect
-e, --elide-empty-files With -n, do not write out pieces that would be empty.
-t, --separator=SEP Use SEP as the line separator instead of newline.
--verbose Print a line as each output file is opened.

Exit status

Code Meaning
0 The file was split.
1 A failure — the input could not be read, or the suffixes were exhausted.

See also