The split(1w) utility reads an input file and
writes one or more output files. The default size of each output
file is 1,000 lines. The -b or
-l option can be specified to modify the size
of the output files. Each output file is created with a unique
suffix that consists of suffixlength lowercase letters. The
letters of the suffix are used as if they were a base-26 digit
system, with the first suffix to be created consisting all a
characters, the second with a b replacing the last a,
and so on, until a name of all z characters is created. By
default, the names of the output files are x, followed by a
two-character suffix from the character set as described above,
starting with aa, ab, ac, and so on, up to the
suffix zz, for a maximum of 676 files.
The prefix used for each of the files results from the split
operation. If no name argument is given, x is used as
the prefix of the output files.
The split utility supports the following options:
-a
Uses suffixlength letters to form the suffix portion of
the file names of the split file. If the -a
option is not specified, the default suffix length is 2.
-b
Splits a file into files of n bytes each. If k is
followed by n, it splits the file into files of
n*1,024 bytes each. If m is followed by n, it
splits the file into files of n*1,048,576 bytes each.
-l
Specifies the number of lines in each resulting file. The
linecount argument is an unsigned decimal integer. The
default is 1,000. If the input does not end with a newline
character, the partial line is included in the last output
file.