CSPLIT(P) POSIX Programmer's Manual CSPLIT(P)NAMEcsplit - split files based on context
SYNOPSIScsplit [-ks][-f prefix][-n number] file arg1 ...argn
DESCRIPTION
The csplit utility shall read the file named by the file operand, write
all or part of that file into other files as directed by the arg oper‐
ands, and write the sizes of the files.
OPTIONS
The csplit utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of
IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.
The following options shall be supported:
-f prefix
Name the created files prefix 00, prefix 01, ..., prefixn. The
default is xx00 ... xx n. If the prefix argument would create a
filename exceeding {NAME_MAX} bytes, an error shall result,
csplit shall exit with a diagnostic message, and no files shall
be created.
-k Leave previously created files intact. By default, csplit shall
remove created files if an error occurs.
-n number
Use number decimal digits to form filenames for the file pieces.
The default shall be 2.
-s Suppress the output of file size messages.
OPERANDS
The following operands shall be supported:
file The pathname of a text file to be split. If file is '-' , the
standard input shall be used.
The operands arg1 ... argn can be a combination of the following:
/rexp/[offset]
A file shall be created using the content of the lines from the
current line up to, but not including, the line that results
from the evaluation of the regular expression with offset, if
any, applied. The regular expression rexp shall follow the rules
for basic regular expressions described in the Base Definitions
volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 9.3, Basic Regular
Expressions. The application shall use the sequence "\/" to
specify a slash character within the rexp. The optional offset
shall be a positive or negative integer value representing a
number of lines. A positive integer value can be preceded by '+'
. If the selection of lines from an offset expression of this
type would create a file with zero lines, or one with greater
than the number of lines left in the input file, the results are
unspecified. After the section is created, the current line
shall be set to the line that results from the evaluation of the
regular expression with any offset applied. If the current line
is the first line in the file and a regular expression operation
has not yet been performed, the pattern match of rexp shall be
applied from the current line to the end of the file. Otherwise,
the pattern match of rexp shall be applied from the line follow‐
ing the current line to the end of the file.
%rexp%[offset]
Equivalent to /rexp/[offset], except that no file shall be cre‐
ated for the selected section of the input file. The application
shall use the sequence "\%" to specify a percent-sign character
within the rexp.
line_no
Create a file from the current line up to (but not including)
the line number line_no. Lines in the file shall be numbered
starting at one. The current line becomes line_no.
{num} Repeat operand. This operand can follow any of the operands
described previously. If it follows a rexp type operand, that
operand shall be applied num more times. If it follows a line_no
operand, the file shall be split every line_no lines, num times,
from that point.
An error shall be reported if an operand does not reference a line
between the current position and the end of the file.
STDIN
See the INPUT FILES section.
INPUT FILES
The input file shall be a text file.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of
csplit:
LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables
that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of
IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization Vari‐
ables for the precedence of internationalization variables used
to determine the values of locale categories.)
LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all
the other internationalization variables.
LC_COLLATE
Determine the locale for the behavior of ranges, equivalence
classes, and multi-character collating elements within regular
expressions.
LC_CTYPE
Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of
bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as
opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input files)
and the behavior of character classes within regular expres‐
sions.
LC_MESSAGES
Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format
and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.
NLSPATH
Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of
LC_MESSAGES .
ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
If the -k option is specified, created files shall be retained. Other‐
wise, the default action occurs.
STDOUT
Unless the -s option is used, the standard output shall consist of one
line per file created, with a format as follows:
"%d\n", <file size in bytes>
STDERR
The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
OUTPUT FILES
The output files shall contain portions of the original input file;
otherwise, unchanged.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
None.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values shall be returned:
0 Successful completion.
>0 An error occurred.
CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
By default, created files shall be removed if an error occurs. When the
-k option is specified, created files shall not be removed if an error
occurs.
The following sections are informative.
APPLICATION USAGE
None.
EXAMPLES
1. This example creates four files, cobol00 ... cobol03:
csplit-f cobol file '/procedure division/' /par5./ /par16./
After editing the split files, they can be recombined as follows:
cat cobol0[0-3] > file
Note that this example overwrites the original file.
2. This example would split the file after the first 99 lines, and
every 100 lines thereafter, up to 9999 lines; this is because lines
in the file are numbered from 1 rather than zero, for historical
reasons:
csplit-k file 100 {99}
3. Assuming that prog.c follows the C-language coding convention of
ending routines with a '}' at the beginning of the line, this exam‐
ple creates a file containing each separate C routine (up to 21) in
prog.c:
csplit-k prog.c '%main(%' '/^}/+1' {20}
RATIONALE
The -n option was added to extend the range of filenames that could be
handled.
Consideration was given to adding a -a flag to use the alphabetic file‐
name generation used by the historical split utility, but the function‐
ality added by the -n option was deemed to make alphabetic naming
unnecessary.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
sed , split
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the
event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2003 CSPLIT(P)
