diff --git a/src/main/scala/InputArgs.scala b/src/main/scala/InputArgs.scala
index 7cde77b..9b7a2fd 100644
--- a/src/main/scala/InputArgs.scala
+++ b/src/main/scala/InputArgs.scala
@@ -10,7 +10,8 @@ case class InputArgs(
     outputDirectory: Option[File] = None,
     inputFileInsteadOfStdin: Option[File] = None,
     suppressMatched: Boolean = false,
-    silentMode: Boolean = false
+    silentMode: Boolean = false,
+    elideEmptyFiles: Boolean = false
 )
 
 /** Use [[OParserBuilder]] API to specify how to take input args from the
@@ -68,6 +69,10 @@ object InputArgs {
         .optional()
         .text("Quiet")
         .action((_, conf) => conf.copy(silentMode = true)),
+      opt[Unit]('z', "elide-empty-files")
+        .optional()
+        .text("remove empty output files")
+        .action((_, conf) => conf.copy(elideEmptyFiles = true)),
       help("help").text("prints this usage text")
     )
   }
diff --git a/src/main/scala/Resplit.scala b/src/main/scala/Resplit.scala
index 653c7b1..ae0ed03 100644
--- a/src/main/scala/Resplit.scala
+++ b/src/main/scala/Resplit.scala
@@ -34,6 +34,10 @@ object Resplit {
             args.regexToMatch.matches(thisLine)
           )
       }
+      .filter { chunk =>
+        if (args.elideEmptyFiles) chunk.nonEmpty || chunk.forall(_.nonEmpty)
+        else true
+      }
       .zipWithIndex
       .map { (chunkOfLines, chunkNumber) =>
         (