SPLIT(1) General Commands Manual SPLIT(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

split - Create output files containing consecutive or interleaved sections of input

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**split** \[OPTION]... \[INPUT \[PREFIX]]

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

Create output files containing consecutive or interleaved sections of input

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

[**-b**, **--bytes** *<SIZE>*](#b)

put SIZE bytes per output file

[**-C**, **--line-bytes** *<SIZE>*](#C)

put at most SIZE bytes of lines per output file

[**-l**, **--lines** *<NUMBER>* \[default: 1000\]](#l)

put NUMBER lines/records per output file

[**-n**, **--number** *<CHUNKS>*](#n)

generate CHUNKS output files; see explanation below

[**--additional-suffix** *<SUFFIX>* \[default: \]](#additional)

additional SUFFIX to append to output file names

[**--filter** *<COMMAND>*](#filter)

write to shell COMMAND; file name is $FILE (Currently not implemented for Windows)

[**-e**, **--elide-empty-files**](#e)

do not generate empty output files with '-n'

[**-d**](#d)

use numeric suffixes starting at 0, not alphabetic

[**--numeric-suffixes**\[=*<FROM>*\]](#numeric)

same as -d, but allow setting the start value

[**-x**](#x)

use hex suffixes starting at 0, not alphabetic

[**--hex-suffixes**\[=*<FROM>*\]](#hex)

same as -x, but allow setting the start value

[**-a**, **--suffix-length** *<N>*](#a)

generate suffixes of length N (default 2)

[**--verbose**](#verbose)

print a diagnostic just before each output file is opened

[**-t**, **--separator** *<SEP>*](#t)

use SEP instead of newline as the record separator; '\\0' (zero) specifies the NUL character

[**-h**, **--help**](#h)

Print help

[**-V**, **--version**](#V)

Print version

\[*input*] \[default: -]

\[*prefix*] \[default: x]

# [EXTRA](#EXTRA)

Output fixed-size pieces of INPUT to PREFIXaa, PREFIXab, ...; default size is 1000, and default PREFIX is 'x'. With no INPUT, or when INPUT is -, read standard input.

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 stdout  
\- l/N split into N files without splitting lines/records  
\- l/K/N output Kth of N to stdout without splitting lines/records  
\- r/N like 'l' but use round robin distribution  
\- r/K/N likewise but only output Kth of N to stdout

# [VERSION](#VERSION)

v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0

2026-09-30

---

Document: split(1) from uutils 0.12.0-r1 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/uutils/coreutils