How can I change where unix pipe sends its results for the split command?

Question

Basically I'm doing this:

export_something | split -b 1000

which splits the results of the export into files names xaa, xab, xac all 1000 bytes each

but I want my output from split to go into files with a specific-prefix. Ordinarily I'd just do this:

split -b <file> <prefix>

but there's no flag for prefix when you're piping to it. What I'm looking for is a way to do this:

export_something | split -b 1000 <output-from-pipe> <prefix>

Is that possible?

Answer 1

Yes, - is commonly used to denote stdin or stdout, whichever makes more sense. In your example

export_something | split -b 1000 - <prefix>

Answer 2

Use - for input

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.

export_something | split -b 1000 - <prefix>