The split command in Linux is used to split large files into smaller files. The default action of the split command on an input file is to break the file into new files of 1,000 line pieces each. The names of the new files are PREFIXaa, PREFIXab, PREFIXac, and so on. By default, the PREFIX of the new files is x, but it can be changed with the -a option. For example, the following command will split the file someLogFile.log into new files of 1,000 lines each with the prefix log:
split someLogFile.log -a 3 log
The new files will be named logaaa, logaab, logaac, and so on. To verify the number of lines in each new file, we can use the wc command with the -l option. For example, the following command will show the number of lines in the first and the last new file:
wc -l logaaa logaas
The output will be:
1000 logaaa 170 logaas
This means that the original file had 17,170 lines and was split into 18 new files. 17 of them have 1,000 lines each, and the last one has the remaining 170 lines. References:
[LPI Exam 101 Detailed Objectives], Topic 103: GNU and Unix Commands, Objective 103.7: Perform basic file management, Weight: 4, Key Knowledge Areas: Use of split and cat to split or join files.
[Split Command in Linux: 9 Useful Examples], Topic: Split Files
