The split/filter.sh test would fail like this: $ make check TESTS=tests/split/filter.sh VERBOSE=yes SUBDIRS=. + truncate -s9223372036854775807 zero.in + timeout 10 sh -c 'split --filter="head -c1 >/dev/null" -n 1 zero.in' split: zero.in: cannot determine file size: Value too large for defined data type That value is 2^63-1 (nearly 8 exabytes), and split.c explicitly handles a file of that size, because that is the size reported for /dev/zero on GNU/Hurd systems, according to the comment. This fixes the test not to trigger that work-around: [I'll update the commit log with the issue URL as soon as it's assigned]