CSPLIT(1)

NAME
csplit - split files based on context

SYNOPSIS
csplit [-ks] [-f prefix] [-n number] file args ...

DESCRIPTION
The csplit utility splits file into pieces using the patterns args. If file is a dash (‘-’), csplit reads from standard input.

The options are as follows:

-f prefix
    Give created files names beginning with prefix. The default is “xx”.

-k  Do not remove output files if an error occurs or a HUP, INT, or TERM signal is received.

-n number
    Use number of decimal digits after the prefix to form the file name. The default is 2.

-s  Do not write the size of each output file to standard output as it is created.

The args operands may be a combination of the following patterns:

    /regexp/ [[+|-]offset] Create a file containing the input from the current line to (but not including) the next line matching the given basic regular expression. An optional offset from the line that matched may be specified.

    %regexp% [[+|-]offset] Same as above but a file is not created for the output.

line_no
    Create containing the input from the current line to (but not including) the specified line number.

{num}
    Repeat the previous pattern the specified number of times. If it follows a line number pattern, a new file will be created for each line_no lines, num times. The first line of the file is line number 1 for historic reasons.

After all the patterns have been processed, the remaining input data (if there is any) will be written to a new file.

Requesting to split at a line before the current line number or past the end of the file will result in an error.

ENVIRONMENT
The LANG, LC_ALL, LC_COLLATE, and LC_CTYPE environment variables affect the execution of csplit as described in environ(7).

EXAMPLES
Split the mdoc(7) file foo.1 into one file for each section (up to 20):

    $ csplit -k foo.1 '%^\.Sh%' '/^\.Sh/' '{20}'

Split standard input after the first 99 lines and every 100 lines thereafter:

    $ csplit -k - 100 '{19}'

SEE ALSO
sed(1), split(1), re_format(7)

STANDARDS
The csplit utility conforms to p1003.1-2004.

HISTORY
A csplit command appeared in PWB UNIX.

BUGS
Input lines are limited to LINE_MAX (2048) bytes in length.