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csplit(1) General Commands Manual csplit(1) NAME csplit - Splits files by context SYNOPSIS csplit [-f prefix] [-ks] [-nnumber] file|- arg1...argn The csplit command reads the specified file (or standard input) and separates it into segments defined by the specified arguments. The csplit command optionally prints the sizes, in bytes, of each file cre- ated. STANDARDS Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry stan- dards as follows: csplit: XPG4, XPG4-UNIX Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about in- dustry standards and associated tags. OPTIONS Specifies the prefix name (xx by default) for the created file seg- ments. Leaves previously created file segments intact in the event of an error. By default, created files are removed if an error occurs. Uses number decimal digits to form file names for the file pieces. The default is 2. Suppresses the display of file size messages. OPERANDS Specifies the text file to be split. If you specify - in place of the input file name, csplit reads from standard input. The operands arg1...argn can be a combination of the following: Creates a file using the contents of the lines from the current line up to, but not including, the line that results from the evaluation of the regular expression with an offset, if included. The offset argument can be any integer (positive or negative) that represents a number of lines. A plus or minus sign is required. Has the same effect as /pattern/, ex- cept that no segment file is created. Moves forward or backward the specified number of lines from the line matched by an immediately pre- ceding pattern argument (for example, /Page/-5). Creates a file con- taining the segment from the current line up to, but not including, line_number, which becomes the current line. Repeats the preceding ar- gument the specified number of times. This number can follow any of the pattern or line_number arguments. If it follows a pattern argu- ment, csplit reuses that pattern the specified number of times. If it follows a line_number argument, csplit splits the file from that point every line_number of lines for number times. DESCRIPTION By default, csplit writes the file segments to files named xx00 ...xxn, where n is the number of arguments listed on the command line (n may not be greater than 99). These new files get the following pieces of file: From the start of file up to, but not including, the line refer- enced by the first argument. From the line referenced by the first ar- gument up to the line referenced by the second argument. From the line referenced by the last argument to the end of file. The csplit command does not alter the original file, unless a generated file overwrites the original file. Quote all pattern arguments that contain spaces or other characters special to the shell. Patterns may not contain embedded newline char- acters. [DIGITAL] See the grep(1) reference page for information about creat- ing patterns. In an expression such as [a-z], the dash means "through" according to the current collating sequence. The collating sequence is determined by the value of the LC_COLLATE environment variable. Unless the -s option is specified, csplit writes one line, containing the file size in bytes, for each file created to standard output. EXIT STATUS The following exit values are returned: Successful completion. An er- ror occurred. Unless the -k option is used, any files created before the error was detected will be removed. EXAMPLES To split the text of a book into a separate file for each chapter, en- ter: csplit book "/^Chapter *[0-9]/" {9} This creates files named xx00, xx01, xx02,...,xx09, which con- tain individual chapters of the file book. Each chapter begins with a line that contains only the word Chapter and the chapter number. The file xx00 contains the front matter that comes be- fore the first chapter. The {9} after the pattern causes csplit to create up to 9 individual chapters; the remainder are placed in xx10. To specify the prefix for the created file names, en- ter: csplit -f chap book "/^Chapter *[0-9]/" {9} This splits book into files named chap00, chap01,...chap9, chap10. ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES The following environment variables affect the execution of csplit: Provides a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. If LANG is unset or null, the corresponding value from the default locale is used. If any of the internationalization variables contain an invalid setting, the utility behaves as if none of the variables had been defined. If set to a non-empty string value, overrides the values of all the other internationalization variables. Determines the locale for the behavior of ranges, equivalence classes, and multicharacter collating elements within regular expressions. De- termines 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 char- acter classes within regular expressions. Determines the locale for the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard er- ror. Determines the location of message catalogues for the processing of LC_MESSAGES. SEE ALSO Commands: ed(1), grep(1), sed(1), sh(1b), sh(1p), split(1) Files: regexp(3) Standards: standards(5) csplit(1)