Thanks for the feedback Ben. On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 8:02 PM, Ben Scott <mailvor...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 3:54 PM, Eric Wittersheim > <eric.wittersh...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Is there anyway to enforce a limit (Windows Server 2000 > > and 2003) on the length of file names? > > Not that I know of. If you find one, let me know, 'cause I got the > same problem in different ways. > > Part of the problem is that not all parts of Windows have the same > path/file name length limits. Reportedly NTFS itself and the innards > of the NT kernel can handle names on the order of thousands of > characters long, but that's mainly academic because the higher-level > stuff falls apart much earlier. The Win32 subsystem (which > practically everything uses) is limited to 255 characters, I believe. > Vital system components -- like Windows Explorer and the shell > libraries -- seem to have even shorter limits. > > One of my favorites is users creating files in their local profile > that work just fine, but then the roaming profile sync code pukes > trying to sync back to the server. (Though I haven't seen that in a > while; it may have been fixed in XP SP2.) > > Another part of the problem is that path name lengths can vary > depending on how the system is "seeing" a file. For example, if I > have C:\Company\Shared\Quality\Public\QMSDocs on the server shared as > QMSDocs, and the workstations map that share as drive Q:, and then > there's > Q:\some\really\absurdly\ridiculously\ludicrously\long\path\name\to\a\file.doc, > then it may be okay for the mapped path on the workstation, but on the > server it will be > > C:\Company\Shared\Quality\Public\QMSDocs\some\really\absurdly\ridiculously\ludicrously\long\path\name\to\a\file.doc > which pushes Explorer over the limit. Result? You can access the > files from Explorer on a workstation, but not Explorer on the server. > > The filesystems typically used on CDs and DVDs have their own limits > which are different from all of the above. So one thing that may help > the CD archive scenario is to put all the files into an archive format > which handles really long file names, like 7-Zip's .7z format. > > -- Ben > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
