.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993
.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" %sccs.include.redist.roff%
.\"
.\"	@(#)split.1	8.2 (Berkeley) %G%
.\"
.Dd 
.Dt SPLIT 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm split
.Nd split a file into pieces
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm split
.Op Fl Ns Ar number
.Op Fl b Ar number
.Op Ar file Op Ar name
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm split
utility reads the given
.Ar file
and splits it up into smaller files of 1000 lines each.
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width "XXXnumber"
.It Fl number
Create smaller files
.Ar n
lines in length.
.It Fl b
Create smaller files
.Ar number
bytes in length.
.El
.Pp
Available operands:
.Bl -tag -width name
.It Ar file
A pathname specifying the
.Ar file 
to be split.
If no
.Ar file
operand is given, or if a file operand of
.Dq Li \&-
is given,
.Nm split
reads from the standard input.
.It Ar name
If the
.Ar name
operand is given,
the output files will begin with the prefix
.Ar name
and each sequential portion of the split file receives a lexically
ordered suffix in the range of 
.Bq Em aa-zz .
If the operand
.Ar name
is not specified, a default prefix of
.Em x
is used, and files are named from
.Dq xaa
to
.Dq zzz .
.Pp
.Sh BUGS
If you provide
.Ar name ,
.Nm split
can only create 676 separate
files.
The default naming convention allows 2028 separate files.
.Sh HISTORY
A
.Nm split
command appeared in
.At v6 .