I know now the FAT32 Problem...

[Gogolo]

Hi

Previously I was writing about File Handling Problems on SD or CF Card.

The Solution is: With FAT32 you may not have a summary of more than 256 Characters for the whole path to your file (inclusive folders, subfolders and the file name).

Otherwise you will encounter serious problems in file handling under windows.

Gogolo

[igorsk]

It's not only FAT32, it's with any filesystem in Windows.
Actually there is a way to use Win32 API to work with paths longer than that but not many programs implement it (I think even Explorer) doesn't.

[Gogolo]

Now I'm really thinking to change to Linux... I hardly can belive this - but you are right.

Thank You
Gogolo

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Gogolo

Now I'm really thinking to change to Linux... I hardly can belive this - but you are right.

The 256 char path limit bites on other OSes besides Windows.

But SD and CF cards come formatted as FAT16 or FAT32, and the OS in devices that can use them includes FAT drivers. You would need to change the formatting on the card to use a different file system.

Personally, I've never found the 256 char pathname limit to be a problem. What are you doing that bumps into it?
______
Dennis

[Gogolo]

I read somewhere that newer kernels can up to 4096 - but of course I dont know it

I have a lot of papers and I like to sort them like this:

01 Texts/05 New Media/01 Computer Games/01 Meta Reviews Violence/Anderson and Bushman/...

Then I have long filenames like this one:

Ferguson_The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. A Meta-analytic Review of Positive and Negative Effects of Violent Video Games.pdf

Now iLiad produces a new folder when I read it... and bang Windows hangs...

Gogolo

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Gogolo

I read somewhere that newer kernels can up to 4096 - but of course I dont know it

I don't either, but you would still need to reformat the card to use the new file system.

That may lead to other problems. For instance, I use a USB card reader to get files from my desktop onto the SD card for my PDA. With cards formatted as FAT16 or FAT32, it's a drag and drop: Windows sees the card in the reader as a removable media drive. Put a different file system on the card and that advantage goes away.

I have a lot of papers and I like to sort them like this:

01 Texts/05 New Media/01 Computer Games/01 Meta Reviews Violence/Anderson and Bushman/...

Then I have long filenames like this one:

Ferguson_The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. A Meta-analytic Review of Positive and Negative Effects of Violent Video Games.pdf

Now iLiad produces a new folder when I read it... and bang Windows hangs...

It's not Windows. It's the FAT32 file system.

Personally, I change my filing system to fit the constraints of the device I'm on, and I may well shorten the file name on a document. I know what the actual title is. I don't need the whole thing as part of the file name. I just need enough to know that file corresponds to that title.

I have about 3,500 ebooks on a wide variety of topics on my PDA, and I have no problem locating and opening the one I want to read. My complaint is that there isn't a standard ebook format everyone supports, so I must maintain five different viewers to cover all the bases, and recall which text is in which format displayed by which viewer.
______
Dennis

[igorsk]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

It's not Windows. It's the FAT32 file system.

FAT32 does not have an inherent limit on the total path length (though some standards might specify a limit). However, a single component of the path (final filename or directory name) cannot exceed 255 characters (this is again an artificial limit but seems to be observed by all implementations).
From MSDN:

Maximum Path Length

In the Windows API, the maximum length for a path is MAX_PATH, which is defined as 260 characters. A path is structured in the following order: drive letter, colon, backslash, components separated by backslashes, and a null-terminating character, for example, the maximum path on the D drive is "D:\<256 chars>NUL".
Note Functions in the Windows API convert "/" to "\" as part of converting the name to an NT style name.

The Unicode versions of several functions permit a maximum path length of approximately 32,000 characters composed of components up to 255 characters in length. To specify that kind of path, use the "\\?\" prefix.
Note The maximum path of 32,000 characters is approximate, because the "\\?\" prefix can be expanded to a longer string, and the expansion applies to the total length.

For example, "\\?\D:\<path>". To specify such a UNC path, use the "\\?\UNC\" prefix. For example, "\\?\UNC\<server>\<share>". These prefixes are not used as part of the path itself. They indicate that the path should be passed to the system with minimal modification, which means that you cannot use forward slashes to represent path separators, or a period to represent the current directory. Also, you cannot use the "\\?\" prefix with a relative path. Relative paths are limited to MAX_PATH characters.

When using the API to create a directory, the specified path cannot be so long that you cannot not append an 8.3 file name (MAX_PATH - 12).

The shell and the file system have different requirements. It is possible to create a path with the API that the shell UI cannot handle.

[Gogolo]

I didnt understand anything in this MSDN citation

But I see the 256 Char Issue is a very nasty thing in times of thousends of files laying on flash and disks.

I tend now again to daudis approach with storing metadata in Manifest and having only numbers for file names...

Thanks for all your replies
Gogolo