=head1 NAME

nbdkit-split-plugin - nbdkit plugin to concatenate split files into one disk

=head1 SYNOPSIS

 nbdkit split [file=]file1 [[file=]file2 [file=]file3 ...]

=head1 DESCRIPTION

C<nbdkit-split-plugin> is a file plugin for L<nbdkit(1)>.  One or more
filenames may be given using the C<FILENAME> parameter.  These
files are logically concatenated into a single disk image.

If you want to add a virtual partition table, see
L<nbdkit-partitioning-plugin(1)>.

=head2 Differences from nbdkit-file-plugin

Normally to serve a single file you should use
L<nbdkit-file-plugin(1)>.  This plugin differs from nbdkit-file-plugin
as follows:

=over 4

=item *

nbdkit-file-plugin is faster and more efficient.  It has a fully
parallel implementation, and does not have to deal with the complexity
of locating the correct file to serve or splitting requests across
files.

=item *

nbdkit-file-plugin allows you to resize the underlying file
dynamically.  The underlying files must B<not> be resized when using
the split plugin.

=item *

nbdkit-file-plugin can handle block devices, but the split plugin can
only handle plain files.

=item *

nbdkit-file-plugin handles writes of blocks of zeroes efficiently, but
the split plugin cannot.

=item *

nbdkit-file-plugin can "punch holes" in the backing file in response
to a trim request from the client, but the split plugin does not
support this.

=back

=head1 PARAMETERS

=over 4

=item [B<file=>]FILENAME

One or more files to open.  They are logically concatenated in
the order they appear on the command line.

This parameter must appear at least once.

C<file=> is a magic config key and may be omitted in most cases.
See L<nbdkit(1)/Magic parameters>.

=back

=head1 FILES

=over 4

=item F<$plugindir/nbdkit-split-plugin.so>

The plugin.

Use C<nbdkit --dump-config> to find the location of C<$plugindir>.

=back

=head1 VERSION

C<nbdkit-split-plugin> first appeared in nbdkit 1.2.

=head1 SEE ALSO

L<nbdkit(1)>,
L<nbdkit-plugin(3)>,
L<nbdkit-file-plugin(1)>,
L<nbdkit-partitioning-plugin(1)>.

=head1 AUTHORS

Richard W.M. Jones

=head1 COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2017 Red Hat Inc.
