Split a file into two but preserve lines

Question

I am struggling with splitting a text file into two.

For example this splits the file into two but if there is an uneven number of lines it creates a third file:

for line in infile:
        count_lines += 1
lines_per_file = int(count_lines / 2)
        subprocess.call(['split', '-l', str(lines_per_file), '--numeric-suffixes', infile, chunk_destination])

While this splits the file into two but cuts lines in half:

subprocess.call(['split', '-n', '1/2', '--numeric-suffixes', infile, chunk_destination])

Is there a relatively simple way of splitting a file into two with Python or Bash that will add the extra line (if number of lines is uneven) into one of the two existing files instead of making a third or splitting into two files but preserving lines?

Answer 1

Actually newer version of split has an option to preserve lines:

CHUNKS may be: N split into N files based on size of input K/N output Kth of N to stdout l/N split into N files without splitting lines/records l/K/N output Kth of N to stdout without splitting lines/records r/N like 'l' but use round robin distribution r/K/N likewise but only output Kth of N to stdout

so this works:

subprocess.call(['split', '-n', 'l/2', '--numeric-suffixes', infile, chunk_destination])