Re: split behavior

[Eric Blake]

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According to Roger McNichols on 9/11/2009 6:51 PM:
> 
> Currently using version 5.2.1 of coreutils 'split' command produces files 
> with 'intelligent' suffixes.  That is, the number of letters (or digits) 
> required
> is based on the known number of output files that will be required.

coreutils 5.2.1 is quite old; the latest stable version is 7.6.

Thanks for the report.  That said, POSIX requires that split stop
processing input and give an error after suffixes have been exhausted,
rather than using longer suffixes:
http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/split.html

But at least there is the -n option to specify a larger suffix.

If you are still worried about running out of suffixes, then it would
probably be worth implementing a command line option that allows split to
use intelligent suffixes; we can't make it the default because of POSIX,
but we can at least provide it via a new option.  Would you like to submit
the patch?

- --
Don't work too hard, make some time for fun as well!

Eric Blake             address@hidden
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