Hi I'm new to Perl so I don't know how to do it that way.
Conceptually though, from a UNIX/LINUX generalised standpoint
cat filename | wc -l
Say this returns 80000
head -40000 filename > file1sthalf
tail -40000 filename > file2ndhalf
head -20000 file1sthalf > filename1stquarter
tail -20000 file1sthalf > filename2ndquarter
...iterate for file2ndhalf
...then cut the resulting 4 quarters into 8ths by same method
This doesn't count and evenly-distribute your >'s but it will give you 8 smaller files to play with.
This method is crude and not at all Perlesque but I just don't have the knowledge ... yet: I'd be interested to see the Perl code to do what I described.
Then run some Perl code to do your line of i th occurence
Rich
In the Gulf of Mexico
Noone can hear you scream