How to split a large text file into smaller files with equal number of lines?

Question

I\'ve got a large (by number of lines) plain text file that I\'d like to split into smaller files, also by number of lines. So if my file has around 2M lines, I\'d like to

Answer 1

Yes, there is a split command. It will split a file by lines or bytes.

$ split --help
Usage: split [OPTION]... [INPUT [PREFIX]]
Output fixed-size pieces of INPUT to PREFIXaa, PREFIXab, ...; default
size is 1000 lines, and default PREFIX is `x'.  With no INPUT, or when INPUT
is -, read standard input.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
  -a, --suffix-length=N   use suffixes of length N (default 2)
  -b, --bytes=SIZE        put SIZE bytes per output file
  -C, --line-bytes=SIZE   put at most SIZE bytes of lines per output file
  -d, --numeric-suffixes  use numeric suffixes instead of alphabetic
  -l, --lines=NUMBER      put NUMBER lines per output file
      --verbose           print a diagnostic just before each
                            output file is opened
      --help     display this help and exit
      --version  output version information and exit

SIZE may have a multiplier suffix:
b 512, kB 1000, K 1024, MB 1000*1000, M 1024*1024,
GB 1000*1000*1000, G 1024*1024*1024, and so on for T, P, E, Z, Y.