SPLIT

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: February 2026
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NAME

split - split a file into pieces  

SYNOPSIS

split [,OPTION/]... [,FILE /[,PREFIX/]]  

DESCRIPTION

Output pieces of FILE to PREFIXaa, PREFIXab, ...; default size is 1000 lines, and default PREFIX is 'x'.

With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#spli-a'-a, --suffix-length=,NX'tty: link'/

generate suffixes of length N (default 2)

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#spli-additiona-suffix'--additional-suffix=SUFFIXX'tty: link'

append an additional SUFFIX to file names

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#spli-b'-b, --bytes=,SIZEX'tty: link'/

put SIZE bytes per output file

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#spli-C'-C, --line-bytes=,SIZEX'tty: link'/

put at most SIZE bytes of records per output file

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#spli-d'-dX'tty: link'

use numeric suffixes starting at 0, not alphabetic

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#spli-numeri-suffixes'--numeric-suffixes[=FROM]X'tty: link'

same as -d, but allow setting the start value

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#spli-x'-xX'tty: link'

use hex suffixes starting at 0, not alphabetic

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#spli-he-suffixes'--hex-suffixes[=FROM]X'tty: link'

same as -x, but allow setting the start value

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#spli-e'-e, --elide-empty-filesX'tty: link'

do not generate empty output files with '-n'

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#spli-filter'--filter=COMMANDX'tty: link'

write to shell COMMAND; file name is $FILE

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#spli-l'-l, --lines=,NUMBERX'tty: link'/

put NUMBER lines/records per output file

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#spli-n'-n, --number=,CHUNKSX'tty: link'/

generate CHUNKS output files; see explanation below

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#spli-t'-t, --separator=,SEPX'tty: link'/

use SEP instead of newline as the record separator; '0' (zero) specifies the NUL character

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#spli-u'-u, --unbufferedX'tty: link'

immediately copy input to output with '-n r/...'

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#spli-verbose'--verboseX'tty: link'

print a diagnostic just before each output file is opened

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/split#spli-help'--helpX'tty: link'

display this help and exit

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/split#spli-version'--versionX'tty: link'

output version information and exit

The SIZE argument is an integer and optional unit (example: 10K is 10*1024). Units are K,M,G,T,P,E,Z,Y,R,Q (powers of 1024) or KB,MB,... (powers of 1000). Binary prefixes can be used, too: KiB=K, MiB=M, and so on.  

CHUNKS may be:

N

split into N files based on size of input

K/N

output Kth of N to standard output

l/N

split into N files without splitting lines/records

l/K/N

output Kth of N to standard output without splitting lines/records

r/N

like 'l' but use round robin distribution

r/K/N

likewise but only output Kth of N to standard output

-n (except -nr) will buffer to $TMPDIR, defaulting to ,/tmp/, if the input size cannot easily be determined.  

AUTHOR

Written by Torbjorn Granlund and Richard M. Stallman.  

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to: bug-coreutils@gnu.org

Report Gentoo bugs to: https://bugs.gentoo.org/
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>  

SEE ALSO

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/split>
or available locally via: info aq(coreutils) split invocationaq

Packaged by Gentoo (9.10 (p0))
Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

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Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

CHUNKS may be:

AUTHOR

REPORTING BUGS

SEE ALSO