[<<]Message[>>]    [<<]Author[>>]    [<<]Subject[>>]    [<<]Thread[>>]

Number   :  5031
Date     :  2003-07-14
Author   :  Any Key
Subject  :  Re: pathnames exceeding 255 characters - any way to deal with them?
Size(KB) :  2


Charlie, I'm not sure your idea of using relative pathnames to reach the
violating file works. I used that method to make that directory the current
directory. Even then, when I tried to rename the file (using the short
name), it didn't work - in fact, strangely enough, the CMD window disappears
from the screen! (Usually the command would execute and I would be returned
to a command prompt.) Strangely enough, even though I could not rename the
file, I was able to delete using the short name (e.g. DEL shortn~1.txt).

SUBST works well, though. I just substitute a drive letter for the very
long path, e.g.:

subst x: c:\longname\longname...\longname

Then, using that drive letter, I was able to rename the file:

ren x:\verylongname.ext shorter.ext

I suppose XXCOPY would work with the SUBST trick too, though I haven't tried
it yet.

It is a big pain to type in a long file name, but at least I have a file
manager (2xExplorer) that will copy the long path name to the clipboard, and
then I can paste it into the SUBST command. But even this is a big pain to
do for all violating files. You don't even know where the violating files
are until you try to use them in some way! XXCOPY can at least identify the
violating files for you in a copy operation.

real life example from my xxcopy log file:

E:\backup - old docs and settings 100G\100G\documents and settings\prior
installations 2\anykey\Favorites\System\Palm m100\\PDA Street - The PDA
Network for PDA Software, Windows CE, Palm Pilot, Psion, Palmtops,
Handspring Visor, REX, Zaurus, Helio, R.url
## The destination full filename exceeds the pathname limit (skipped). ##

Maybe the XXCOPY.LOG file can be used to help fix the problem, because it
contains the fully qualified path name of all skipped files. You could take
the list of skipped files, and then convert it into a batch file. For each
skipped file, put in a line as follows:

subst x: "c:\skippedpathname"
copy x:\skippedfilename.ext c:\safepathname
del x:"c:\skippedfilename.ext"

It would be good to find a utility that will recursively search a path, and
identify any files whose fully qualified pathname violates the rule (and fix
the problem!). Maybe this could even be done with a script.



This message if part of XXCOPY's message Archive.
The archive contains all the messages posted at Yahoo!Groups: XXCOPY.