diff --git a/base/str.cc b/base/str.cc
index dd8d800436..5357ba79f5 100644
--- a/base/str.cc
+++ b/base/str.cc
@@ -39,6 +39,36 @@
 
 using namespace std;
 
+bool
+split_first(const string &s, string &lhs, string &rhs, char c)
+{
+    string::size_type offset = s.find(c);
+    if (offset == string::npos) {
+        lhs = s;
+        rhs = "";
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    lhs = s.substr(0, offset);
+    rhs = s.substr(offset + 1);
+    return true;
+}
+
+bool
+split_last(const string &s, string &lhs, string &rhs, char c)
+{
+    string::size_type offset = s.rfind(c);
+    if (offset == string::npos) {
+        lhs = s;
+        rhs = "";
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    lhs = s.substr(0, offset);
+    rhs = s.substr(offset + 1);
+    return true;
+}
+
 void
 tokenize(vector<string>& v, const string &s, char token, bool ignore)
 {
diff --git a/base/str.hh b/base/str.hh
index 812f4d41a8..41433f2bd7 100644
--- a/base/str.hh
+++ b/base/str.hh
@@ -90,6 +90,20 @@ to_lower(const std::string &s)
     return lower;
 }
 
+// Split the string s into lhs and rhs on the first occurence of the
+// character c.
+bool
+split_first(const std::string &s, std::string &lhs, std::string &rhs, char c);
+
+// Split the string s into lhs and rhs on the last occurence of the
+// character c.
+bool
+split_last(const std::string &s, std::string &lhs, std::string &rhs, char c);
+
+// Tokenize the string <s> splitting on the character <token>, and
+// place the result in the string vector <vector>.  If <ign> is true,
+// then empty result strings (due to trailing tokens, or consecutive
+// tokens) are skipped.
 void
 tokenize(std::vector<std::string> &vector, const std::string &s,
          char token, bool ign = true);