xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/split/split.1 (revision 03c249af416cb78a22868a62fb4dd4b3ef435e54)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994
2.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
6.\" are met:
7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
8.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
10.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
11.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
12.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
13.\"    must display the following acknowledgement:
14.\"	This product includes software developed by the University of
15.\"	California, Berkeley and its contributors.
16.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
17.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
18.\"    without specific prior written permission.
19.\"
20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
30.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
31.\"
32.\"	@(#)split.1	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/16/94
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd April 16, 1994
36.Dt SPLIT 1
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm split
40.Nd split a file into pieces
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Op Fl a Ar suffix_length
44.Op Fl b Ar byte_count[k|m]
45.Op Fl l Ar line_count
46.Op Fl p Ar pattern
47.Op Ar file Op Ar name
48.Sh DESCRIPTION
49The
50.Nm
51utility reads the given
52.Ar file
53and breaks it up into files of 1000 lines each.
54If
55.Ar file
56is a single dash
57.Pq Sq Fl
58or absent,
59.Nm
60reads from the standard input.
61.Pp
62The options are as follows:
63.Bl -tag -width Ds
64.It Fl a
65Use
66.Ar suffix_length
67letters to form the suffix of the file name.
68.It Fl b
69Create smaller files
70.Ar byte_count
71bytes in length.
72If
73.Dq Li k
74is appended to the number, the file is split into
75.Ar byte_count
76kilobyte pieces.
77If
78.Dq Li m
79is appended to the number, the file is split into
80.Ar byte_count
81megabyte pieces.
82.It Fl l
83Create smaller files
84.Ar n
85lines in length.
86.It Fl p Ar pattern
87The file is split whenever an input line matches
88.Ar pattern ,
89which is interpreted as an extended regular expression.
90The matching line will be the first line of the next output file.
91This option is incompatible with the
92.Fl b
93and
94.Fl l
95options.
96.El
97.Pp
98If additional arguments are specified, the first is used as the name
99of the input file which is to be split.
100If a second additional argument is specified, it is used as a prefix
101for the names of the files into which the file is split.
102In this case, each file into which the file is split is named by the
103prefix followed by a lexically ordered suffix using
104.Ar suffix_length
105characters in the range
106.Dq Li a-z .
107If
108.Fl a
109is not specified, two letters are used as the suffix.
110.Pp
111If the
112.Ar name
113argument is not specified, the file is split into lexically ordered
114files named with prefixes in the range of
115.Dq Li x-z
116and with suffixes as above.
117.Sh BUGS
118For historical reasons, if you specify
119.Ar name ,
120.Nm
121can only create 676 separate
122files.
123The default naming convention allows 2028 separate files.
124The
125.Fl a
126option can be used to work around this limitation.
127.Pp
128The maximum line length for matching patterns is 65536.
129.Sh SEE ALSO
130.Xr csplit 1 ,
131.Xr re_format 7
132.Sh STANDARDS
133The
134.Nm
135utility conforms to
136.St -p1003.1-2001 .
137.Sh HISTORY
138A
139.Nm
140command appeared in
141.At v3 .
142