#!/usr/local/bin/perl
# Program name: split.pl
# Author: Rajiv Pant (Betul)   betul@rajiv.com   http://rajiv.org
# Version 1.0. August, 1994

# Note: Documentation is at end.

$BigFile = shift ;

$DiskSize = 1_400_000 ;

open (BIGFILE, $BigFile) ;

while (read (BIGFILE, $c, 1))
  {
  $SmallFileNumber = int (1 + $byte/$DiskSize) ;
  if ($SmallFileNumber != $PreviousSmallFileNumber)
    {
    print "Creating new file: $BigFile.$SmallFileNumber\n" ;
    open (SMALLFILE, ">$BigFile.$SmallFileNumber") ;
    }
  print SMALLFILE $c ;
  $byte++ ;
  $PreviousSmallFileNumber = $SmallFileNumber ;
  }

close (SMALLFILE) ;
close (BIGFILE) ;

__END__

This program splits a large file into smaller files so that they fit
on floppy disks.

The files can be combined on any computer at the other end without any
special software, including this. The target system could be DOS, Windows,
MAC, Unix, OS/2, VMS or anything else.

The splitting of the file is done using this program that will run on any
computer that has perl. Perl is available free for Unix, DOS, Windows, MAC,
and several other platforms.

This is useful when you need to transport a large file to another location
and you don't know what tools or operating systems you will have available
at the other end. Also, it is useful to transport something in smaller
pieces over a slow modem connection that often gets disconnected.

Let us take an example, You need to transfer a huge postscript image from
one location to another. You are not sure what operating system or software
thay have at the other end. (Believe me, it happens sometimes when you do
not have the option of using a Network transfer, A portable high capacity
drive, a laptop with a connector, or some other means.)

On your unix machine you run (On a Windows/DOS machine, run split.pl using
perl by prefixing it with PERL or using associating .pl with perl. For other
platforms, you need to know how to run perl programs.)

(For DOS, Windows 1.x, 2.x, 3.x, rename BIGPAGE.PS to BPG or something short
without an extension. split.pl will create files like BPG.1 BPG.2 BPG.3 etc.
After you transport them and combine them, you can rename the resulting file
back to BIGPAGE.PS)

split.pl BIGPAGE.PS

This creates smaller files with the name BIGPAGE.PS.1 BIGPAGE.PS.2 ...
and so on.

To combine them on Windows, use: (Remember to combine them on DOS or Windows
1.x, 2.x, 3.x, you will be using short names as mentioned above.)

copy/b BIGPAGE.PS.1+BIGPAGE.PS.2+BIGPAGE.PS.3 BIGPAGE.PS

To combine them on Unix:

cat BIGPAGE.PS.1 BIGPAGE.PS.2 BIGPAGE.PS.3 > BIGPAGE.PS

Or, for over 10 files without having to mention each one's name:

cat BIGPAGE.PS.? BIGPAGE.PS.?? > BIGPAGE.PS


Note: You can change the $DiskSize value to 340_000 for 360KB disks.