What is split?
5 split examples
Syntax and Options
Related Commands
What is split?
split command splits a single file into multiple files.
5 split Examples
Split the file into multiple pieces with 1000 lines each
Split command splits the file into 1000 lines per file, and names the files as PREFIXaa, PREFIXab, PREFIXac, and so on. By default the PREFIX is x, and the number of lines is 1000 lines per file.
$ split mylog
$ wc -l *
4450 mylog
1000 xaa
1000 xab
1000 xac
1000 xad
450 xae
Split the file into 20 MB pieces
Split the file into 20 MB files as shown below with -b option.
$ split -b 20M logdata $ ls -lh | tail -n +2 -rw------- 1 sathiya sathiya 102M Jul 25 18:47 logdata -rw------- 1 sathiya sathiya 20M Jul 25 19:20 xaa -rw------- 1 sathiya sathiya 20M Jul 25 19:20 xab -rw------- 1 sathiya sathiya 20M Jul 25 19:20 xac -rw------- 1 sathiya sathiya 20M Jul 25 19:20 xad -rw------- 1 sathiya sathiya 20M Jul 25 19:20 xae -rw------- 1 sathiya sathiya 1.6M Jul 25 19:20 xaf
Split the file into 50 MB pieces with the given prefix
Split the file into 50 MB files as shown below with –bytes option which is similar as the -b option, and give the prefix as second argument.
$ split --bytes=50M logdata mydatafile $ ls -lh total 204M -rw------- 1 sathiya sathiya 102M Jul 25 18:47 logdata -rw------- 1 sathiya sathiya 50M Jul 25 19:23 mydatafileaa -rw------- 1 sathiya sathiya 50M Jul 25 19:23 mydatafileab -rw------- 1 sathiya sathiya 1.6M Jul 25 19:23 mydatafileac
Split the file based up on the number of lines
Split the file into multiple pieces based up on the number of lines using -l option as shown below.
$ wc -l testfile 2591 testfile $ split -l 1500 testfile importantlog $ wc -l * 1500 importantlogaa 1091 importantlogab 2591 testfile
Split the file and name it with numbers
Use -d option to name the files with number suffixes as 00, 01, 02 .. and so on, instead of aa, ab, ac.
$ split -d testfile $ ls testfile x00 x01 x02
| Short Option | Long Option | Option Description |
|---|---|---|
| -a | –suffix-length=N | use suffixes of length N (default 2) |
| -b | –bytes=SIZE | put SIZE bytes per output file |
| -C | –line-bytes=SIZE | put at most SIZE bytes of lines per output file |
| -d | –numeric-suffixes | use numeric suffixes instead of alphabetic |
| -l | –lines=NUMBER | put NUMBER lines per output file |
Comments on this entry are closed.
I easily understand this.
Very useful – simple commands, easily understood and applied. Thanks!
Good Sample code
thanks for the command shared, very useful.
Thanks,
To explain the command with proper example
Hi,
I have one file ,In this files i am having 1000 records ,file name calles data.txt ,
i want to split 1000 records to 5 different files ,In each file 2000 records .(through the unix command)
Hi All,
I couldn’t and i’m sorry for that, I have a file which has 27000 lines and i would like to split it as 1000 lines, the file name is test1. Can i have the command
Thanks,
Sandeep
Now i can easily understand split command. Examples are more effective.
is it possible to use it to split not with numeric suffixes but prefixes. such as:
01foobar.mp3
02foobar.mp3
03foobar.mp3
.
.
.?