Question

When would you use zipsplit vs split from a Linux/Unix command line?

I had to break up a large zip file from the command line to keep ftp from timing out (yes I was using passive mode) and someone suggested zipsplit. This command wouldn’t break into units smaller than the largest file and everything didn’t rejoin properly when I tried to rejoin on the other side. The split command let me break any file into an arbitrary size and rejoined by piping a simple cat command.

I was just frustrated and just don’t understand why zipsplit exists compared to split.

Answer 1

zipsplit splits zip file into smaller valid, readable, decompressible zipfiles. With split, you can’t do anything useful with pieces until you join them back.