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    Dealing with Windows' Maximum Path Name and File Name Length Restrictions
    Dealing with Windows' Maximum Path Name and File Name Length Restrictions
    Dealing with Windows' Maximum Path Name and File Name Length Restrictions
    Ebook77 pages38 minutes

    Dealing with Windows' Maximum Path Name and File Name Length Restrictions

    By Steven Morgan Anderson

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    About this ebook

    Do you find that you are, at times, prevented from either copying or moving or saving or backing up or renaming or deleting or archiving a file or folder within Windows ... or even creating a new file or folder in the first place? If so, it may be that you have run into Windows’ variable restrictions on how long the maximum data path name length (i.e., the total character length of the complete string representing the final location of a particular folder or file) can be. This book explains the nature of why this problem situation sometimes occurs, under what circumstances it may occur within and under what circumstances it will not occur, describes and illustrates examples of how this problem may present itself to you and what error messages you will receive (if any) that indicates or otherwise suggests this path length limitation problem as the cause, and provides possible solutions and strategies to deal most effectively with this problem if it occurs. Endnotes and references sections included.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSteven Morgan Anderson
    Release dateDec 17, 2014
    ISBN9781311062178
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    Book preview

    Dealing with Windows' Maximum Path Name and File Name Length Restrictions - Steven Morgan Anderson

    Dealing with Windows' Maximum Path Name and File Name Length Restrictions

    A Problem Issue with Copying, Moving, Saving, Backing Up, Renaming, Deleting, Creating, or Archiving Files on Drives or Partitions or Discs within Microsoft Windows

    with

    Possible Solutions and Strategies

    Steven Morgan Anderson

    ~~~

    Smashwords Edition

    Copyright 2014 P. Steven Morgan Anderson

    Smashwords Edition, License Notes

    This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

    CONTENTS

    PREFACE

    THE PROBLEM

    Definition of a Path (alternately referred to as a File Path or Data Path)

    Examples of a Very Long (or Too Long) Data Path

    An Experiment

    The Results

    Analysis of the Results

    CONCLUSION

    SOLUTIONS (Some Suggested Practical Approaches To Try To Avoid This Problem)

    ENDNOTES

    REFERENCES

    LIST OF FIGURES

    PREFACE

    Why was it felt necessary by the author (myself) to write this book?

    The reason is because users of personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system (although this situation prevailed as well in the previous Microsoft operating system named MS-DOS) will very likely, sooner or later, run into problems with successfully completing the process (or even sometimes successfully getting the process started in the first place) of either creating a file name or folder (a/k/a directory name) in the first place and/or then copying or moving or saving or backing up or renaming or deleting a file or folder or nested sub-folder within the complete data path of the file or folder they are trying to handle or process in one of these mentioned ways (see the chapter titled Definition of a Path (alternately referred to as a File Path or Data Path) for a description of what a path or file path or data path is).

    Note that this can sometimes include being prevented from even compressing a collection of files into an archive file such as a zip file or compressed exe file or other archive format (e.g., other archive formats used in the Windows environment can include 7z or 7zip, bzip2 or bz2, gzip or gz, tar, rar, iso, cab, et al).

    Often times, the root cause of this encountered problem (i.e., being prevented from carrying out any one or a combination of the aforementioned tasks) can be determined to be that the Windows API (Application Programming Interface) that Microsoft itself has traditionally based the programming code of its operating system and many of its built-in operating system components upon, as well as many third-party developers of programs, utilities, et al basing their own programs, utilities, et al upon this same Windows API, has certain function calls or components within it that, if used by a program or utility or operating system component, will institute limitations as to how long the maximum path name or file/folder name length can be. That is, program interfaces operating within the Windows environment that still use certain function calls or components drawn from the standard API (Microsoft’s proprietary Windows API or Application Programming Interface), as differs from the non-proprietary open industry-standard Unicode API, will limit you to paths of 260- or 255-characters including spaces … or sometimes even less characters in particular situations. In contrast, the Unicode API (which Microsoft itself has taken advantage of to varying degrees, being an open non-proprietary industry-wide standard) provides a way to have a complete data path or file path that could be up to 32,767 characters.

    But unless an internal operating system component (e.g., most particularly Windows Explorer, which was renamed to File Explorer starting with Windows 8-onward and is the default user interface for dealing with files and folders in the Windows environment) and/or any other Microsoft or third-party individual programs or utilities take it upon themselves to use the Unicode API-equivalent functions in place of the more-limited Windows API functions in their internal programming code, the end-user may still encounter problems with copying or moving or saving or backing up or archiving or renaming or deleting or even creating files or folders (a/k/a directories) within Windows if you choose to use long descriptive folder names or file names in a complete data path (which I and many others prefer to do if allowed to) rather than using

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