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SPLIT
Section: User Commands (1)Updated: February 2026
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NAME
split - split a file into piecesSYNOPSIS
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.