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Long Filenames

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7 replies

by matt.walker

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I know that win95 and up can support filenames up to 255 characters and that it creates and alias in 8.3 file name format. I remember reading somewhere that for every 13 characters after the initial 8 that another 8.3 alias is created for that file, ie, a 25.3 in windows would have 3 8.3 aliases. Is that true and are these just alias names or actual copies of the file which can take up space on the hard drive?

7 replies

by syscokid

Interesting. Never heard that. If it's true, the names don't show up when you type dir in a DOS box.

by earnest

As I understand it the main drawback to long file names as regards the file system is there is a max of 512 file names in the root directory 8.3 format. When longfile names are used this number decreases. The file names themselves are index in the Fat < file allocation Table >. There is a finite amount of space available for the fat and this is what makes the space/ number of entries get smaller.

Bo

by madsg

When you create a file longer than 8+3 the OS automaticaly creates a 8.3 "alias" for a non long filename OS (DOS, Win 3.11)
But that shoud be all.

Mads

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