csplit ... text file splitter

csplit command

Today i faced a situation where i needed to split a text file into separate files based on text inside, a quick Google search showed that there is a command-line program called csplit that can do the trick, the program can be downloaded from the following link:

http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/coreutils.htm

after installation don't forget to add the installation directory to PATH system variables so that it can be run without the need to write the full program path each time.

to use the program follow this syntax:

csplit [OPTION]... FILE PATTERN...

where options can be:

-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.

and FILE is the file need to be split, and PATTERN may be as:

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.

an example :
csplit -ks -f text FILE_TO_BE_SPLIT.txt /MATCHING_TEXT/ {*}

in this example csplit will search the text file named FILE_TO_BE_SPLIT.txt for the matching text MATCHING_TEXT and will split the text file each time this MATCHING_TEXT occurres