The "str.split" and "str.rsplit" methods have a useful "maxsplit" option, which lets you set the number of times to split, defaulting to -1 (which is "unlimited").  The corresponding "os.path.split", however, has no "maxsplit" option.  It can only split once, which splits the last path segment (the "basename") from the rest (equivalent of "str.rsplit" with "maxsplit=1").  

I think it would be useful if "os.path.split" also had a "maxsplit" option.  This would default to "1" (the current behavior"), but could be set to any value allowed by "str.split".  Using this option would follow the behavior of "str.rsplit" for that value of "maxsplit".