>Heh, some confusion it seems. No idea where I got eight from. I think that DEC's Files-11 ODS-1 file system had 9.3 file names with a 6 byte file name + a 2 byte extension with RAD-50 encoding 3 characters per 2 bytes.
That might be the origin of the 3 character extension. I think that MSDOS borrowed the FAT 8.3 file name format from CP/M which borrowed it from DEC's early operating systems, except that 8 was easier to deal with than 9 on early 8 bit processors. Some early Linux distributions could run on MSDOS FAT filesystems and tried to keep file names 8.3. 8.3 compliant file names were also convenient when copying files on FAT-formatted floppy disks. William ________________________________ From: [email protected] on behalf of Arsen Arsenović Sent: Wednesday, October 1, 2025 9:21 AM To: G. Branden Robinson Cc: Alejandro Colomar; [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: Re: Move GNU manual pages to the Linux man-pages project "G. Branden Robinson" <[email protected]> writes: >> (A funny side note: subconsciously, I chose the name "fildes.7" as to >> not go over eight characters; it came to me naturally after many years >> of working with and on Unix-like systems, this archaic element simply >> lodged itself into my instincts after some time.) > > Eight's an odd choice for that, though. As I understand it, the Fortran > linker that Unix originally used (C did not exist yet) had a limit of 6 > characters for externally resolvable symbols, because that was all some > IBM operating system could handle. File names (or "path name > components", if one insists) were limited to 14 characters until the > Berkeley "fast" file system. The tuhs at tuhs dot org is a more > reliable resource than I can be here, though. Heh, some confusion it seems. No idea where I got eight from. -- Arsen Arsenović
