semicolon in file names

[cybmole]

i was doing a save to disc, then burn to CD; of a book selection & found that my burn software objects to seeing semicolons in file names.

that happens whenever calibre sees 2 or more authors, it generates a file name at "save to disc stage" that uses semicolon as author name separator.

do I just have to find a more tolerant burn program ( to replace Roxio) or is there a work-around.

is it bad practice to generate file names that contain ; ?

[DiapDealer]

is it bad practice to generate file names that contain ; ?

I don't know if it's bad practice or not, but I definitely try to avoid any characters other than alpha-numerics, dashes or underscores in filenames.

that happens whenever calibre sees 2 or more authors, it generates a file name at "save to disc stage" that uses semicolon as author name separator.

That's configurable.

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I don't know if it's bad practice or not, but I definitely try to avoid any characters other than alpha-numerics, dashes or underscores in filenames.


That's configurable.

expand, please

[ivanjt]

Way back in the dim and distant past, when computing was beginning the operating system kernel had a series of reserved characters /\?%*:¦"<.> and when they were found in a file name the OS considered them as instructions to do something.

For a full listing see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filename

There are also various other control characters that should not be used or strange results may follow.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by cybmole

expand, please

If you mean on the "it's configurable" part; in the "Saving books to disk" preferences in calibre, you can customize the template that creates the file name. Several of the device interface plugins can be customized to do the same thing.

[user_none]

It's not bad practice to have a ';' in a filename however as you found it is a reserved character for ISO9660 (the file system used by cds).

[HarryT]

CDs have a more restricted set of characters permitted for filenames than do computer operating systems. The characters you're allowed to use in the file system of a CD are a part of the CD-ROM standard, and are independent of the operating system that your computer uses.

These days, I'd suggest using an external USB disk for backup, rather than CDs. Much easier to use, and less hassle.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by cybmole

i was doing a save to disc, then burn to CD; of a book selection & found that my burn software objects to seeing semicolons in file names.

that happens whenever calibre sees 2 or more authors, it generates a file name at "save to disc stage" that uses semicolon as author name separator.

do I just have to find a more tolerant burn program ( to replace Roxio) or is there a work-around.

is it bad practice to generate file names that contain ; ?

Just add them to a all to a Zip/RAR (without any punctuation in the zips file name) befor yo burn that one, big file

[cybmole]

thanks guys.

PS I see I used the wrong forum - should have posted this to calibre forum!

for my own backups I do use a USB drive, n this case however, I was burning stuff to CD for my daughter to take away when I noticed the issue. Yes I could have zipped all but then if that 1 file is unreadable you've lose everything. one book per file is more failure tolerant

[theducks]

Originally Posted by cybmole

thanks guys.

PS I see I used the wrong forum - should have posted this to calibre forum!

for my own backups I do use a USB drive, n this case however, I was burning stuff to CD for my daughter to take away when I noticed the issue. Yes I could have zipped all but then if that 1 file is unreadable you've lose everything. one book per file is more failure tolerant

Make a PAR for your zip and include it

[opitzs]

Or use winrar with recovery information...

[grumbles]

I came across this looking for something else...

You don't mention what program you are using to burn the CD however if you are using an program like ImgBurn (if you're not, you should be), you should set the file system to ISO9660 + Joliet + UDF. This will allow almost all characters in the filename. All current OS's can handle both Joliet & UDF file systems.

[morantis]

One of the reasons is that is most programming languages a semicolon denotes the end of a command or line

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by grumbles

I came across this looking for something else...

You don't mention what program you are using to burn the CD however if you are using an program like ImgBurn (if you're not, you should be), you should set the file system to ISO9660 + Joliet + UDF. This will allow almost all characters in the filename. All current OS's can handle both Joliet & UDF file systems.

thanks for the tip - I do have imgburn but in that instance ( it was my post originally) I was using Roxio easy media creator, as it has a slicker interface & is usually fine for CD burning.