11 Useful split command examples for Linux/UNIX systems

As the name suggests ‘split‘ command is used to split or break a file into the pieces in Linux and UNIX systems. Whenever we split a large file with split command then split output file’s default size is 1000 lines and its default prefix would be ‘x’.

In this article we will discuss 11 useful split command examples for Linux Users. Apart from this we will also discuss how split files can be merge or reassembled into a single file. Syntax for split command:

# split {options} {file_name} {prefix}

Some of the important options of split command is shown below:

Example: 1) Split File into Pieces

Let’s assume we have file name with tuxlap.txt, Use below split command to break into the pieces

[root@lpicentral ~]# split tuxlap.txt
[root@lpicentral ~]# ll
total 32
-rw-------. 1 root root  980 Aug 12 00:11 anaconda-ks.cfg
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 9607 Nov 11 03:22 tuxlap.txt
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 8744 Nov 11 03:23 xaa
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  863 Nov 11 03:23 xab
[root@lpicentral ~]#

As we can see the above output ‘tuxlab.txt‘ is split into two pieces with the name ‘xaa’ and ‘xab’.

Example: 2) Split Command with verbose option

We can run split command in verbose mode with option ‘–verbose‘, example is shown below:

[root@lpicentral ~]# split tuxlap.txt --verbose
creating file ‘xaa’
creating file ‘xab’
[root@lpicentral ~]#

Example: 3) Split files with customize line numbers (-l)

Let’s suppose we want to split a file with customize line numbers, let say I want max 200 lines per file.

To achieve this, use  ‘-l’ option in split command.

[root@lpicentral ~]# split -l200 tuxlap.txt --verbose
creating file ‘xaa’
creating file ‘xab’
creating file ‘xac’
creating file ‘xad’
creating file ‘xae’
creating file ‘xaf’
[root@lpicentral ~]#

Verify the lines of each file using below command

[root@lpicentral ~]# wc -l xa*
 200 xaa
 200 xab
 200 xac
 200 xad
 200 xae
  91 xaf
1091 total
[root@lpicentral ~]#

Example: 4) Split files with file size using option  -b

Using Split command we can split a file with file size. Use the following syntax to split files with size in bytes, KB , MB and GB

# split  -b{bytes}  {file_name}

# split  -b  nK      {file_name}    // n is the numeric value

# split  -b   nM    {file_name}      // n is the numeric value

# split  -b   nG     {file_name}     // n is the numeric value

Split file based on bytes:

[root@lpicentral ~]# split -b2000000 tuxlap.txt

Split file based on KB:

[root@lpicentral ~]# split -b 50K tuxlap.txt

Split file based on MB:

[root@lpicentral ~]# split -b 50M tuxlap.txt

Split file based on GB:

[root@lpicentral ~]# split -b 1G tuxlap.txt

Example: 5) Create Split files with numeric suffix instead of alphabetic (-d)

In the above examples we have seen that split command output files are created with alphabetic suffix like xaa, xab….. xan , Use ‘-d’ option with split command to create split output files with numeric suffix like x00, x01, … x0n

[root@lpicentral ~]# split -d tuxlap.txt

[root@lpicentral ~]# ll
total 1024256
-rw-------. 1 root root        980 Aug 12 00:11 anaconda-ks.cfg
-rwx------. 1 root root 1048576000 Nov 11 03:54 linux-lite.iso
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root     120010 Nov 11 04:39 tuxlap.txt
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root      11998 Nov 11 04:41 x00
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root      12000 Nov 11 04:41 x01
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root      12000 Nov 11 04:41 x02
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root      12000 Nov 11 04:41 x03
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root      12000 Nov 11 04:41 x04
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root      12000 Nov 11 04:41 x05
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root      12000 Nov 11 04:41 x06
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root      12000 Nov 11 04:41 x07
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root      12000 Nov 11 04:41 x08
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root      12000 Nov 11 04:41 x09
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root         12 Nov 11 04:41 x10
[root@lpicentral ~]#

Example: 6) Split file with Customize Suffix

With split command we can create split output files with customize suffix. Let’s assume we want to create split output files with customize suffix

Syntax:

# split  {file_name}  {prefix_name}

[root@lpicentral ~]# split tuxlap.txt split_file_

[root@lpicentral ~]# ll
total 1024248
-rw-------. 1 root root        980 Aug 12 00:11 anaconda-ks.cfg
-rwx------. 1 root root 1048576000 Nov 11 03:54 linux-lite.iso
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root      11998 Nov 11 04:56 split_file_aa
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root      12000 Nov 11 04:56 split_file_ab
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root      12000 Nov 11 04:56 split_file_ac
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root      12000 Nov 11 04:56 split_file_ad
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root      12000 Nov 11 04:56 split_file_ae
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root      12000 Nov 11 04:56 split_file_af
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root      12000 Nov 11 04:56 split_file_ag
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root      12000 Nov 11 04:56 split_file_ah
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root      12000 Nov 11 04:56 split_file_ai
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root      12000 Nov 11 04:56 split_file_aj
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root         12 Nov 11 04:56 split_file_ak
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root     120010 Nov 11 04:39 tuxlap.txt
[root@lpicentral ~]#

Example: 7) Generate n chunks output files with split command (-n)

Let’s suppose we want to split an iso file into 4 chunk output files. Use ‘-n’ option with split command limit the number of split output files.

[root@lpicentral ~]# split -n5 linux-lite.iso

Verify the Split out files using ll command.

[root@lpicentral ~]# ll
total 2048124
-rw-------. 1 root root        980 Aug 12 00:11 anaconda-ks.cfg
-rwx------. 1 root root 1048576000 Nov 11 03:54 linux-lite.iso
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root     120010 Nov 11 04:39 tuxlap.txt
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  209715200 Nov 11 05:22 xaa
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  209715200 Nov 11 05:22 xab
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  209715200 Nov 11 05:22 xac
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  209715200 Nov 11 05:23 xad
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  209715200 Nov 11 05:23 xae
[root@lpicentral ~]#

Example: 8) Prevent Zero Size Split output files with option (-e)

There can be some scenarios where we split a small file into a large number of chunk files and zero size split output files can be created in such cases, so to avoid zero size split output file, use the option ‘-e’

[root@lpicentral ~]# split -n60 -e tuxlap.txt
[root@lpicentral ~]# ls -l x*
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 2000 Nov 11 05:34 xaa
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 2000 Nov 11 05:34 xab
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 2000 Nov 11 05:34 xac
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 2000 Nov 11 05:34 xad
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 2000 Nov 11 05:34 xae
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 2000 Nov 11 05:34 xaf
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 2000 Nov 11 05:34 xag
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 2000 Nov 11 05:34 xah
.............
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 2000 Nov 11 05:34 xce
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 2000 Nov 11 05:34 xcf
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 2000 Nov 11 05:34 xcg
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 2010 Nov 11 05:34 xch
[root@lpicentral ~]#

Example:9) Create Split output files of customize suffix length (-a option)

Let’s suppose we want to split an iso file and where size of each split output file is 500MB and suffix length is to be 3.  Use the following split command:

[root@lpicentral ~]# split -b 500M linux-lite.iso -a 3

[root@lpicentral ~]# ll
total 2048124
-rw-------. 1 root root        980 Aug 12 00:11 anaconda-ks.cfg
-rwx------. 1 root root 1048576000 Nov 11 03:54 linux-lite.iso
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root     120010 Nov 11 04:39 tuxlap.txt
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  524288000 Nov 11 05:43 xaaa
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  524288000 Nov 11 05:43 xaab
[root@lpicentral ~]#

Example: 10) Split ISO file and merge it into a single file.

Let’s suppose we have a Windows Server ISO file of size 4.2 GB and we are unable to scp this file to remote server because of its size.

To resolve such type of issues we can split the ISO into n number of pieces and will copy these pieces to remote sever and on the remote server we can merge these pieces into a single file using cat command,

[root@lpicentral ~]# split -b 800M Windows2012r2.iso Split_IS0_

View the split output files using ll command,

[root@lpicentral ~]# ll
total 8871788
-rw-------. 1 root root        980 Aug 12 00:11 anaconda-ks.cfg
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  838860800 Nov 11 06:29 Split_IS0_aa
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  838860800 Nov 11 06:29 Split_IS0_ab
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  838860800 Nov 11 06:29 Split_IS0_ac
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  838860800 Nov 11 06:29 Split_IS0_ad
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  838860800 Nov 11 06:29 Split_IS0_ae
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  347987968 Nov 11 06:29 Split_IS0_af
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root     120010 Nov 11 04:39 tuxlap.txt
-rwx------. 1 root root 4542291968 Nov 11 06:03 Windows2012r2.iso
[root@lpicentral ~]#

Now scp these files to remote server and merge these files into a single using cat command

[root@lpicentral ~]# cat Split_IS0_a* > Windows_Server.iso
[root@lpicentral ~]#

Example: 11) Verify the Integrity of Merge file using md5sum utility

As per Example 10, once the split output files are merged into a single file, then we can check the integrity of actual & merge file with md5sum utility. Example is shown below:

[root@lpicentral ~]# md5sum Windows2012r2.iso
5b5e08c490ad16b59b1d9fab0def883a  Windows2012r2.iso
[root@lpicentral ~]#

[root@lpicentral ~]# md5sum Windows_Server.iso
5b5e08c490ad16b59b1d9fab0def883a  Windows_Server.iso
[root@lpicentral ~]#

As per the above output, it is confirm that integrity is maintained and we can also say split file are successfully restored to a single file.