.\"	$OpenBSD: split.1,v 1.17 2008/01/05 09:30:36 jmc Exp $
.\"	$NetBSD: split.1,v 1.5 1994/12/21 08:20:35 jtc Exp $
.\"
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.\"	@(#)split.1	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/16/94
.\"
.Dd $Mdocdate: January 5 2008 $
.Dt SPLIT 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm split
.Nd split a file into pieces
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm split
.Op Fl a Ar suffix_length
.br
.Oo
.Fl b
.Sm off
.Ar byte_count Op Cm k \*(Ba m
.Sm on
.No \*(Ba Fl l Ar line_count
.No \*(Ba Fl p Ar pattern
.Oc
.Op Ar file Op Ar name
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility reads the given
.Ar file ,
or standard input if no file is specified,
and breaks it up into files of 1000 lines each.
.Ar file
itself is not altered.
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl a Ar suffix_length
Use
.Ar suffix_length
letters to form the suffix of the file name
(see below).
The default suffix length is 2.
.It Xo
.Fl b
.Sm off
.Ar byte_count
.Op Cm k \*(Ba m
.Sm on
.Xc
Create files
.Ar byte_count
bytes in length.
If
.Sq k
is appended to the number, the file is split into
.Ar byte_count
kilobyte pieces.
If
.Sq m
is appended to the number, the file is split into
.Ar byte_count
megabyte pieces.
.It Fl l Ar line_count
Create files
.Ar line_count
lines in length.
.It Fl p Ar pattern
The file is split whenever an input line matches
.Ar pattern ,
which is interpreted as an extended regular expression.
The matching line will be the first line of the next output file.
This option is incompatible with the
.Fl b
and
.Fl l
options.
.El
.Pp
If
.Ar name
is specified,
it is used as a prefix
for the names of the files into which the file is split.
In this case, each file into which the file is split is named by the
prefix followed by a lexically ordered suffix using
.Ar suffix_length
characters in the range
.Dq a-z .
.Pp
If the
.Ar name
argument is not specified, the file is split into lexically ordered
files named with the prefixes
.Sq x ,
.Sq y ,
and
.Sq z .
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr csplit 1 ,
.Xr re_format 7
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Nm
utility is compliant with the
.St -p1003.1-2004
specification.
.Pp
The flag
.Op Fl p
is an extension to that specification.
.Pp
The use of
.Sq y
and
.Sq z
prefixes (in addition to the standard
.Sq x )
in the absence of a
.Ar name
parameter is an
.Ox
extension.
.Sh HISTORY
A
.Nm
command appeared in
.At v3 .
.Sh BUGS
The maximum line length for matching patterns is 65536.