str.split() function does the same:

>>> s = "line1\nline2\rline3\r\nline4\vline5\x1dhello"

>>> s.split() ['line1', 'line2', 'line3', 'line4', 'line5', 'hello']

>>> s.splitlines() ['line1', 'line2', 'line3', 'line4', 'line5', 'hello']

But split() has sep argument to define delimiter according which to split the string.. In which case it provides what you expected to happen:

>>> s.split('\n') ['line1', 'line2\rline3\r', 'line4\x0bline5\x1dhello']

In general you want this:

>>> linesep_splitter = re.compile(r'\n|\r\n?')

>>> linesep_splitter.split(s) ['line1', 'line2', 'line3', 'line4\x0bline5\x1dhello']