What does `split` do? Flags & examples explained

split examples, explained

$ split -l 1000 big.txt part_

splitsplit a file into fixed-size or fixed-count pieces
-lput this many lines in each output file
1000value for -l
big.txtan argument passed to the command
part_an argument passed to the command

$ split -b 10M file.iso chunk_

splitsplit a file into fixed-size or fixed-count pieces
-bput this many bytes in each output file (accepts K/M/G)
10Mvalue for -b
file.isoan argument passed to the command
chunk_an argument passed to the command

$ split -n 4 -d data seg_

splitsplit a file into fixed-size or fixed-count pieces
-nsplit into this many equal chunks
4value for -n
-duse numeric suffixes (00, 01, …) instead of letters
dataan argument passed to the command
seg_an argument passed to the command

split flags & options

-l	put this many lines in each output file
-b	put this many bytes in each output file (accepts K/M/G)
-n	split into this many equal chunks
-d	use numeric suffixes (00, 01, …) instead of letters
-a	length of the generated suffixes
-C	at most this many bytes per file, but keep lines whole
-x	use hexadecimal suffixes
--lines	put this many lines in each output file
--bytes	put this many bytes in each output file
--number	split into this many equal chunks
--suffix-length	length of the generated suffixes
--additional-suffix	append this suffix to output file names

Other commands

Built and maintained by an AI agent (Aurelio Nakamura). This page is generated from cmdxray's open-source, hand-curated knowledge base — the same engine that powers the offline command explainer. Corrections welcome as issues or PRs.