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.\" DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE! It was generated by help2man 1.50.1.
.TH SPLIT "1" "February 2026" "GNU coreutils 9.10" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
split \- split a file into pieces
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B split
[\fI\,OPTION\/\fR]... [\fI\,FILE \/\fR[\fI\,PREFIX\/\fR]]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.\" Add any additional description here
.PP
Output pieces of FILE to PREFIXaa, PREFIXab, ...;
default size is 1000 lines, and default PREFIX is 'x'.
.PP
With no FILE, or when FILE is \-, read standard input.
.PP
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#split-a'\fB\-a, \-\-suffix\-length=\,N\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
generate suffixes of length N (default 2)
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#split--additional-suffix'\fB\-\-additional\-suffix=SUFFIX\fP\X'tty: link'
append an additional SUFFIX to file names
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#split-b'\fB\-b, \-\-bytes=\,SIZE\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
put SIZE bytes per output file
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#split-C'\fB\-C, \-\-line\-bytes=\,SIZE\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
put at most SIZE bytes of records per output file
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#split-d'\fB\-d\fP\X'tty: link'
use numeric suffixes starting at 0, not alphabetic
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#split--numeric-suffixes'\fB\-\-numeric\-suffixes[=FROM]\fP\X'tty: link'
same as \fB\-d\fR, but allow setting the start value
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#split-x'\fB\-x\fP\X'tty: link'
use hex suffixes starting at 0, not alphabetic
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#split--hex-suffixes'\fB\-\-hex\-suffixes[=FROM]\fP\X'tty: link'
same as \fB\-x\fR, but allow setting the start value
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#split-e'\fB\-e, \-\-elide\-empty\-files\fP\X'tty: link'
do not generate empty output files with '\-n'
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#split--filter'\fB\-\-filter=COMMAND\fP\X'tty: link'
write to shell COMMAND; file name is $FILE
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#split-l'\fB\-l, \-\-lines=\,NUMBER\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
put NUMBER lines/records per output file
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#split-n'\fB\-n, \-\-number=\,CHUNKS\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
generate CHUNKS output files; see explanation below
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#split-t'\fB\-t, \-\-separator=\,SEP\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
use SEP instead of newline as the record separator;
\&'\e0' (zero) specifies the NUL character
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#split-u'\fB\-u, \-\-unbuffered\fP\X'tty: link'
immediately copy input to output with '\-n r/...'
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#split--verbose'\fB\-\-verbose\fP\X'tty: link'
print a diagnostic just before each output file is opened
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/split#split--help'\fB\-\-help\fP\X'tty: link'
display this help and exit
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/split#split--version'\fB\-\-version\fP\X'tty: link'
output version information and exit
.PP
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.
.SS "CHUNKS may be:"
.TP
N
split into N files based on size of input
.TP
K/N
output Kth of N to standard output
.TP
l/N
split into N files without splitting lines/records
.TP
l/K/N
output Kth of N to standard output without splitting lines/records
.TP
r/N
like 'l' but use round robin distribution
.TP
r/K/N
likewise but only output Kth of N to standard output
.PP
\fB\-n\fR (except \fB\-nr\fR) will buffer to $TMPDIR, defaulting to \fI\,/tmp\/\fP,
if the input size cannot easily be determined.
.SH AUTHOR
Written by Torbjorn Granlund and Richard M. Stallman.
.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
Report bugs to: bug\-coreutils@gnu.org
.br
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
.br
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
.br
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
.SH COPYRIGHT
Copyright \(co 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
.br
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/split>
.br
or available locally via: info \(aq(coreutils) split invocation\(aq
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