I don't know where to ask this. If there is a better place, please let
me know.

Is there any limit on file length now-a-days?
When I started it was 8 char . 3 extension
Then it went to 26 char . 3 extension
I now have one file that is 64 char . 3 extension.

Let me explain why I ask. I admin a small web site for a fishing club.
I ask the members to send pictures of their trips. It is nothing for me
to get 30 or more pictures.

I think pictures tell a better story if there are captions to go with
each one. I wasn't on the trip so I can not write good captions telling
about the event.

I want to try to get the members to rename their pictures with a name
that would tell about the picture and can be used as a caption. I just
don't know what length to tell them.

TIA
Dave

--
A little rum in the morning coffee. Just to clear the cobwebs, ya know.

Dave Kelly wrote:
> I don't know where to ask this. If there is a better place, please let
> me know.
>
> Is there any limit on file length now-a-days?

Yes. Depending on the OS and filesystem.

> When I started it was 8 char . 3 extension

(Or even 6.3 - ...were there even 6 someday?)

> Then it went to 26 char . 3 extension
> I now have one file that is 64 char . 3 extension.

While there are some OSes/filesystems that allow longer names (and some
[only older ones?] that don't allow filenames of that length) you should
be safe today if you use up to 255 characters (254 if you have OS2/HPFS)
on Unixes, Macs and Windozes.

Janis

>
> Let me explain why I ask. I admin a small web site for a fishing club.
> I ask the members to send pictures of their trips. It is nothing for me
> to get 30 or more pictures.
>
> I think pictures tell a better story if there are captions to go with
> each one. I wasn't on the trip so I can not write good captions telling
> about the event.
>
> I want to try to get the members to rename their pictures with a name
> that would tell about the picture and can be used as a caption. I just
> don't know what length to tell them.
>
> TIA
> Dave
>

On May 28, 1:16 pm, Dave Kelly <daveeke...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> I don't know where to ask this. If there is a better place, please let
> me know.
>
> Is there any limit on file length now-a-days?

File lengths are governed by the size of your storage media, the type
of filesystem you use, and any quota assigned to the user or group.
Itym 'length of the filename' here.

> When I started it was 8 char . 3 extension

AFAIK, Unix has never had an 8.3 limit, especially since there was no
special meaning given to the dot character. Early Unix had a 14-
character file name restriction, as a directory entry was 16bytes long
(2 bytes for the inode, 14 bytes for the filename, no \0 terminator)

Perhaps you are thinking of CP/M or MS/DOS?

> Then it went to 26 char . 3 extension

That fits, I think. That would make a dirent 32 bytes long

> I now have one file that is 64 char . 3 extension.

Most modern Unix systems should be able to handle that.

[snip]

On 2007-05-28, Janis Papanagnou wrote:
> Dave Kelly wrote:
>> I don't know where to ask this. If there is a better place, please let
>> me know.
>>
>> Is there any limit on file length now-a-days?
>
> Yes. Depending on the OS and filesystem.

It is defined by the NAME_MAX macro. A common value is 255.

>> When I started it was 8 char . 3 extension
>
> (Or even 6.3 - ...were there even 6 someday?)

The reason the Forth language was so named rather than Fourth (as
in Fourth Generation Language) was because the file system couldn't
handle longer file names. I don't know what system that was and my
Forth book is upstairs and I'm too lazy to go and look.

--
Chris F.A. Johnson, author <http://cfaj.freeshell.org/shell/>
Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (2005, Apress)
===== My code in this post, if any, assumes the POSIX locale
===== and is released under the GNU General Public Licence

On Mon, 28 May 2007 20:01:27 +0200, Janis Papanagnou
<Janis_Papanagnou@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Dave Kelly wrote:
>> I don't know where to ask this. If there is a better place, please let
>> me know.
>>
>> Is there any limit on file length now-a-days?
>
> Yes. Depending on the OS and filesystem.
>
>> When I started it was 8 char . 3 extension
>
> (Or even 6.3 - ...were there even 6 someday?)
>
MS-DOS started with 8.3, as did CP/M. TOPS-10 had 6.3 filenames. If
you went to college in the 1970s or 80s, or used CompuServe during that
time, you might have used TOPS-10 or -20. The TRS-80 Model 100 used
6.2 filenames.



--
Everything I like is either illegal, immoral or fattening.
-- Alexander Woollcott

Dave Kelly wrote:

>
> I want to try to get the members to rename their pictures with a name
> that would tell about the picture and can be used as a caption. I just
> don't know what length to tell them.

Thanks to everyone for the insight and replies. I am just going to tell
them 150 characters

Dave

--
A little rum in the morning coffee. Just to clear the cobwebs, ya know.

Allodoxaphobia wrote:
> On Mon, 28 May 2007 17:16:28 GMT, Dave Kelly wrote:
>> :
>>
>> I want to try to get the members to rename their pictures with a name
>> that would tell about the picture and can be used as a caption.
>
> All the other discussion(s) aside: Good luck with *THAT* ! ! :-)
>
> Jonesy
Thanks??????????
Sounds like you've been there - tried that.

Like trying to herd a clowder of cats.

Dave

ps
I love my spell checker. It tried to change you name to:
agoraphobia
n : a morbid fear of open spaces (as fear of being caught alone
in some public place)

--
A little rum in the morning coffee. Just to clear the cobwebs, ya know.

On Mon, 28 May 2007 22:39:47 +0000, Dave Kelly wrote:

> Allodoxaphobia wrote:
>> On Mon, 28 May 2007 17:16:28 GMT, Dave Kelly wrote:
>>> :
>>>
>>> I want to try to get the members to rename their pictures with a name
>>> that would tell about the picture and can be used as a caption.
>>
>> All the other discussion(s) aside: Good luck with *THAT* ! ! :-)
>>
>> Jonesy
> Thanks??????????
> Sounds like you've been there - tried that.
>
> Like trying to herd a clowder of cats.
>
> Dave
>
> ps
> I love my spell checker. It tried to change you name to: agoraphobia
> n : a morbid fear of open spaces (as fear of being caught alone
> in some public place)

That's an opinion, I'm afraid ;-)

On Mon, 28 May 2007 22:39:47 GMT, Dave Kelly wrote:
> Allodoxaphobia wrote:
>> On Mon, 28 May 2007 17:16:28 GMT, Dave Kelly wrote:
>>> :
>>>
>>> I want to try to get the members to rename their pictures with a name
>>> that would tell about the picture and can be used as a caption.
>>
>> All the other discussion(s) aside: Good luck with *THAT* ! ! :-)
>>
>> Jonesy
> Thanks??????????
> Sounds like you've been there - tried that.
> Like trying to herd a clowder of cats.

Exactly! Even _if_ a few *know how* to rename image files. :-)

> ps
> I love my spell checker. It tried to change you name to:
> agoraphobia
> n : a morbid fear of open spaces (as fear of being caught alone
> in some public place)

Nope. For usenet, "Allodoxaphobia" pretty much covers it. <Big Grin>

http://wikidumper.blogspot.com/2006/...oxaphobia.html

Regards,
Jonesy
--
Marvin L Jones | jonz | W3DHJ | linux
38.24N 104.55W | @ config.com | Jonesy | OS/2
*** Killfiling google posts: <http://jonz.net/ng.htm>