Linux Split and Rename Commands

Splitting and Renaming Files in Linux

Need to break up a large CSV file—say, a million rows—into smaller files with 100,000 rows each? The split command makes this easy.

Splitting a Large File

split thefile.csv -d --lines=100000

The -d flag uses numeric suffixes instead of letters (e.g., x00, x01 instead of xaa, xab).

Restoring File Extensions

One quirk: split removes the file extension. You can restore it using the rename command:

rename 's/$/.csv/' x*

This appends .csv to all files starting with x.

Resources

• rename man page
• split man page