csplit - Man Page

split a file into sections determined by context lines

Examples (TL;DR)

Split a file at lines 5 and 23: csplit path/to/file 5 23
Split a file every 5 lines (this will fail if the total number of lines is not divisible by 5): csplit path/to/file 5 {*}
Split a file every 5 lines, ignoring exact-division error: csplit -k path/to/file 5 {*}
Split a file at line 5 and use a custom prefix for the output files: csplit path/to/file 5 -f prefix
Split a file at a line matching a regular expression: csplit path/to/file /regular_expression/

Description

Output pieces of FILE separated by PATTERN(s) to files 'xx00', 'xx01', ..., and output byte counts of each piece to standard output.

Read standard input if FILE is -

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

-b, --suffix-format=FORMAT: use sprintf FORMAT instead of %02d
-f, --prefix=PREFIX: use PREFIX instead of 'xx'
-k, --keep-files: do not remove output files on errors
--suppress-matched: suppress the lines matching PATTERN
-n, --digits=DIGITS: use specified number of digits instead of 2
-s, --quiet, --silent: do not print counts of output file sizes
-z, --elide-empty-files: suppress empty output files
--help: display this help and exit
--version: output version information and exit

Each PATTERN may be

INTEGER: copy up to but not including specified line number
/REGEXP/[OFFSET]: copy up to but not including a matching line
%REGEXP%[OFFSET]: skip to, but not including a matching line
{INTEGER}: repeat the previous pattern specified number of times
{*}: repeat the previous pattern as many times as possible

A line OFFSET is an integer optionally preceded by '+' or '-'

Author

Written by Stuart Kemp and David MacKenzie.

Reporting Bugs

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Copyright © 2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Info

November 2024 GNU coreutils 9.5