Pádraig Brady wrotes:
> Thanks a lot for working on this.

> Could you give a real world example where
> you find this useful, just for the record.
It's useful in some cases where the chunk files type is known. As for
example, when I split a file which is a concatenation of several bitmap
files of the same size. Automatically append the appropriate suffix
"type" is time saving and comfortable. Another example is when the split
does not alter the file "type" as in the example you provided below,
input and output files are "txt" files. Having the appropriate suffix
automatically appended to the chunk file names make these files easily
available to applications which care about the file suffix.

> I should note that --suffix is incompatible
> with a variable length generated suffix.
> I.E. one that would allow for arbitrary sized input:
> http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2009-09/msg00220.html
> Though I guess that functionality could still be
> provided if required, by specifying --suffix-length=auto
> and having that mutually exclusive with --suffix.
First, after having carefully read the thread you are talking about I
did not find any implementation of this in the current coreutils
repository. Anyway, this feature is interesting and I would be glad to
implement it if needs too but in another commit.

Second, I don't get your point. Why it should not be possible to append
a fixed length suffix to output files with a variable length dynamic
suffix ? I do not figure out why it's incompatible. What do I
misunderstood ?

For example, the following hypothetical split command call looks
perfectly compatible:
$ split -n10 --suffix-length=auto --suffix=.txt file.txt file.
$ ls
  file.aa.txt
  file.ab.txt
  file.ac.txt
  file.ad.txt
  file.ae.txt
  file.af.txt
  file.ag.txt
  file.ah.txt
  file.ai.txt
  file.aj.txt
  [...]
  file.yv.txt
  file.yw.txt
  file.yx.txt
  file.yy.txt
  file.yz.txt
  file.zaaa.txt
  file.zaab.txt
  file.zaac.txt
  file.zaad.txt
  file.zaae.txt
  file.zaaf.txt

> As for the patch, it seems to work :)
> 
> t$ seq 10 > file.txt
> t$ ../split -n10 --suffix=.txt file.txt file.
> t$ l
> -rw-rw-r--. 1 padraig 21 Jan 28 14:06 file.txt
> -rw-rw-r--. 1 padraig  3 Jan 28 14:06 file.aj.txt
> -rw-rw-r--. 1 padraig  2 Jan 28 14:06 file.ai.txt
> -rw-rw-r--. 1 padraig  2 Jan 28 14:06 file.ah.txt
> -rw-rw-r--. 1 padraig  2 Jan 28 14:06 file.ag.txt
> -rw-rw-r--. 1 padraig  2 Jan 28 14:06 file.af.txt
> -rw-rw-r--. 1 padraig  2 Jan 28 14:06 file.ae.txt
> -rw-rw-r--. 1 padraig  2 Jan 28 14:06 file.ad.txt
> -rw-rw-r--. 1 padraig  2 Jan 28 14:06 file.ac.txt
> -rw-rw-r--. 1 padraig  2 Jan 28 14:06 file.ab.txt
> -rw-rw-r--. 1 padraig  2 Jan 28 14:06 file.aa.txt

> We'd need some corresponding documentation in doc/coreutils.texi,
> and an entry in NEWS.
I added the corresponding documentation in both of files. I've done my
best but feel free to comment my additions.

> Also even thought the patch is small, you'd need to start
> the copyright assignment process for a new parameter to `split`.
I filled out and sent my coreutils assignment form.

Cheers,

Jérémy
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