Linux csplit command
Updated: 11/06/2021 by Computer Hope
On Unix-like operating systems, the csplit command splits a file into sections, based on context lines.
This page covers the GNU/Linux version of ucsplit.
Description
csplit outputs pieces of FILE separated by PATTERN(s) to files 'xx00', 'xx01', ..., and output byte counts of each piece to standard output.
Syntax
csplit [OPTION]... FILE PATTERN...
Options
| -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. |
| -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 | Remove empty output files. |
| --help | Display a help message and exit. |
| --version | Output version information and exit. |
csplit reads standard input if FILE is specified as a dash ("-"). 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 a required '+' or '-' followed by a positive integer.
Examples
csplit -f cobol filename '/procedure division/' /par5./ /par16./
Creates four files, cobol00...cobol03.
After editing the split files, they can be recombined into filename using the cat command as follows:
cat cobol0[0-3] > filename
Related commands
cat — Output the contents of a file.
sed — A utility for filtering and transforming text.
split — Split a file into pieces.