Splitting up large files

There is a program, called split-to-html, that you can use to split large files into many small files; for example, sections and subsections. This program was written by Maria Winslow, a student working in the UNC-CH Office of Information Technology (now called Academic Technology and Networks).

To run the program, you will either need to obtain a copy of the source code (written in C) or upload your file to the www.unc.edu machine and run the program there, as described below.

First, put markers (.bp) in the file at each point where you would like a new WWW page to begin, by inserting a line containing .bp (on a line by itself). The line following the .bp will become the heading for the section; make sure it is all on one line.

Upload the file to www.unc.edu, if it's not already there.

Enter the following command:

     ~hallman/public/split_to_html

You will be prompted for the name of the file to split and then for the title of the document.

The program splits the file at the breakpoints into files named file.1.html through file.n.html, and it creates a Table of Contents in the index.html file. The first lines of each file contain:

     <TITLE>the document title you specified</TITLE>
     <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" link="#007ff" vlink="#A6131A">
     <H1>the line that followed the .bp line</H1>

The last lines for file n contain:

     <P><center><IMG ALT=""
     SRC="http://www.unc.edu/gif/official/line.gif"></center>
     <A HREF="file.n+1.html"> Next topic</A>
     <BR>
     <A HREF="file.n-1.html"> Previous topic</A><BR>
     <A HREF="index.html"> Beginning of 
     Document</A>
     <P><A HREF="http://www.unc.edu/"
     SRC="http://www.unc.edu/gif/official/wellicon.gif">To UNC-CH 
     Home Page</A><P>

The first file lacks the "Previous topic" line and the last file lacks the "Next topic" line.

If your document has subsections, edit the index.html to put the subsections in unordered lists. You will also want to add to the end of the index.html file, your name and e-mail address and the current date.

See the current issue of The University Gazette, for an example.

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Last modified: 1997 Sep 19