diff --git a/usr.bin/split/split.1 b/usr.bin/split/split.1
index b089841a2cdc..cc2f1f54dcbc 100644
--- a/usr.bin/split/split.1
+++ b/usr.bin/split/split.1
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-.\"	$NetBSD: split.1,v 1.8 2001/12/08 19:16:19 wiz Exp $
+.\"	$NetBSD: split.1,v 1.9 2003/06/10 16:32:54 bjh21 Exp $
 .\"
 .\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994
 .\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@
 .\"
 .\"	@(#)split.1	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/16/94
 .\"
-.Dd April 16, 1994
+.Dd June 10, 2003
 .Dt SPLIT 1
 .Os
 .Sh NAME
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@
 .Nd split a file into pieces
 .Sh SYNOPSIS
 .Nm
+.Op Fl a Ar suffix_length
 .Op Fl b Ar byte_count[k|m]
 .Op Fl l Ar line_count
 .Op Ar file Op Ar name
@@ -54,6 +55,10 @@ and breaks it up into files of 1000 lines each.
 .Pp
 The options are as follows:
 .Bl -tag -width Ds
+.It Fl a
+Use
+.Ar suffix_length
+letters to form the suffix of the file name.
 .It Fl b
 Create smaller files
 .Ar byte_count
@@ -79,19 +84,29 @@ of the input file which is to be split.
 If a second additional argument is specified, it is used as a prefix
 for the names of the files into which the file is split.
 In this case, each file into which the file is split is named by the
-prefix followed by a lexically ordered suffix in the range of
-.Dq Li aa-zz .
+prefix followed by a lexically ordered suffix using
+.Ar suffix_length
+characters in the range
+.Dq Li a-z .
+If
+.Fl a
+is not specified, two letters are used as the suffix.
 .Pp
 If the
 .Ar name
 argument is not specified, the file is split into lexically ordered
-files named in the range of
-.Dq Li xaa-zzz .
+files named with prefixes in the range of
+.Dq Li x-z
+and with suffixes as above.
 .Sh HISTORY
 A
 .Nm
 command appeared in
 .At v6 .
+The
+.Fl a
+option was introduce in
+.Nx 2.0 .
 .Sh BUGS
 For historical reasons, if you specify
 .Ar name ,
@@ -99,3 +114,6 @@ For historical reasons, if you specify
 can only create 676 separate
 files.
 The default naming convention allows 2028 separate files.
+The
+.Fl a
+option can be used to work around this limitation.
diff --git a/usr.bin/split/split.c b/usr.bin/split/split.c
index bffcbe535304..18de97a73a85 100644
--- a/usr.bin/split/split.c
+++ b/usr.bin/split/split.c
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/*	$NetBSD: split.c,v 1.9 2003/03/20 14:12:50 christos Exp $	*/
+/*	$NetBSD: split.c,v 1.10 2003/06/10 16:32:54 bjh21 Exp $	*/
 
 /*
  * Copyright (c) 1987, 1993, 1994
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ __COPYRIGHT("@(#) Copyright (c) 1987, 1993, 1994\n\
 #if 0
 static char sccsid[] = "@(#)split.c	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/25/94";
 #endif
-__RCSID("$NetBSD: split.c,v 1.9 2003/03/20 14:12:50 christos Exp $");
+__RCSID("$NetBSD: split.c,v 1.10 2003/06/10 16:32:54 bjh21 Exp $");
 #endif /* not lint */
 
 #include <sys/param.h>
@@ -61,6 +61,7 @@ __RCSID("$NetBSD: split.c,v 1.9 2003/03/20 14:12:50 christos Exp $");
 static int file_open;		/* If a file open. */
 static int ifd = -1, ofd = -1;	/* Input/output file descriptors. */
 static char fname[MAXPATHLEN];	/* File name prefix. */
+static int sfxlen = 2;		/* suffix length. */
 
 int  main(int, char **);
 static void newfile(void);
@@ -77,7 +78,7 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[])
 	unsigned long long bytecnt = 0;	/* Byte count to split on. */
 	unsigned long long numlines = 0;/* Line count to split on. */
 
-	while ((ch = getopt(argc, argv, "-0123456789b:l:")) != -1)
+	while ((ch = getopt(argc, argv, "-0123456789b:l:a:")) != -1)
 		switch (ch) {
 		case '0': case '1': case '2': case '3': case '4':
 		case '5': case '6': case '7': case '8': case '9':
@@ -117,6 +118,10 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[])
 			if ((numlines = strtoull(optarg, &ep, 10)) <= 0 || *ep)
 				errx(1, "%s: illegal line count.", optarg);
 			break;
+		case 'a': /* Suffix length. */
+			if ((sfxlen = strtol(optarg, &ep, 10)) <= 0 || *ep)
+				errx(1, "%s: illegal suffix length.", optarg);
+			break;
 		default:
 			usage();
 		}
@@ -129,8 +134,16 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[])
 				err(1, "%s", *argv);
 			++argv;
 		}
-	if (*argv != NULL)			/* File name prefix. */
-		(void)strcpy(fname, *argv++);
+
+	if (*argv != NULL) {
+		if (strlen(*argv) + sfxlen > NAME_MAX)
+			errx(EXIT_FAILURE, "Output file name too long");
+		(void)strcpy(fname, *argv++);		/* File name prefix. */
+	} else {
+		if (1 + sfxlen > NAME_MAX)
+			errx(EXIT_FAILURE, "Output file name too long");
+	}
+
 	if (*argv != NULL)
 		usage();
 
@@ -255,6 +268,7 @@ newfile(void)
 	static int fnum;
 	static int defname;
 	static char *fpnt;
+	int quot, i;
 
 	if (ofd == -1) {
 		if (fname[0] == '\0') {
@@ -271,15 +285,18 @@ newfile(void)
 	 * Hack to increase max files; original code wandered through
 	 * magic characters.  Maximum files is 3 * 26 * 26 == 2028
 	 */
-#define MAXFILES	676
-	if (fnum == MAXFILES) {
+	fpnt[sfxlen] = '\0';
+	quot = fnum;
+	for (i = sfxlen - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
+		fpnt[i] = quot % 26 + 'a';
+		quot = quot / 26;
+	}
+	if (quot > 0) {
 		if (!defname || fname[0] == 'z')
 			errx(1, "too many files.");
 		++fname[0];
 		fnum = 0;
 	}
-	fpnt[0] = fnum / 26 + 'a';
-	fpnt[1] = fnum % 26 + 'a';
 	++fnum;
 	if (!freopen(fname, "w", stdout))
 		err(1, "%s", fname);
@@ -307,6 +324,7 @@ static void
 usage(void)
 {
 	(void)fprintf(stderr,
-"Usage: %s [-b byte_count] [-l line_count] [file [prefix]]\n", getprogname());
+"Usage: %s [-b byte_count] [-l line_count] [-a suffix_length] "
+"[file [prefix]]\n", getprogname());
 	exit(1);
 }