To "chop" your file in Unix use: fold -w291 in-file > out-file. Your awk statement has the following errors: 1. The "-F" flag is used to indicate the field separator character. For example: awk -F@ '{...}' 2. The correct syntax of the printf() function is printf("%291s\n",$0) 3. Such statement would extract the first 291 characters of each line of your input file, and not "chop" it. MK In article <[log in to unmask]>, Ken Winslet <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Does anyone out there know the command to split a file in the Unix world. > > I have a file and need to chop it up into 291 byte records. > > I tried this command but I get errors: > > awk -F '(printf("291%s\n",$0)' file2.dat>file2.dat > > any help would be great!!!! > > Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Share what you know. Learn what you don't.