Re: Mac file NAMING that doesn't work on PCs
- From: dempson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (David Empson)
- Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2007 12:11:25 +1300
MNRebecca <webbrl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
A colleage has been charged with arranging automatic back-up of
several Mac users' desktop computers to a company Netfiles server that
only permits PC file naming. I warned her that I tried to back up my
Mac documents folder to that server once and was rejected because my
files had Mac names not acceptable to a PC server. We were trying to
brainstorm a list of typical Mac-user filenaming practices that might
prove problematic. Can anybody think of some or direct me to a good
list?
I'm sure there is a reasonably complete list that I've seen somewhere -
perhaps in an Apple knowledge base article?
Off the top of my head, the primary restriction is that there are
several characters which have special meanings on Windows and therefore
can't be used in a filename at all. Windows refuses to let you rename a
file if you try to use these symbols.
The special characters are:
\ / : * ? " < > |
Backslash is a pathname separator.
Forward slash is used to identify command line options.
Colon separates the drive letter from the rest of the pathname.
Asterisk and question mark are wildcard characters.
Quotes are used to delimit filenames containing spaces.
Less-than, Greater-than and vertical bar are used to redirect input and
output when running applications on a command line.
(The Mac can't use colons either - it is a pathname separator.)
You might run into problem with non-English characters (such as accented
letters) or anything typed with the option key, as some Windows file
systems can't represent non-ASCII characters in a portable way. (I
expect NTFS should be OK, as it can do Unicode filenames.) A network
file storage device might impose very strict rules and only allow ASCII
filenames.
Maximum length of individual file or folder names might be a problem,
but only when you get into the order of 100 characters or more.
Total length of a pathname (filename length plus all parent folder name
lengths) might be a problem in some cases. I wouldn't expect this to be
an issue with a modern version of Windows, but older versions balked at
total pathname lengths in the order of 250 characters.
We thought of:
* at beginning of folder or file name
Anywhere, not just at the beginning.
Too long a folder or file name (but how long is too long?)
Likely to be a power of two limit such as 127 or 255.
My boss swears that hypens, underscores and spaces in folder or file
names won't be a problem. True?
Correct. I frequently use these in Windows filenames.
(Spaces can be a minor issue if using command line tools, because you
have to quote the filename.)
We're talking about people who've been using Macs for decades and will
have thousands of folders and files that could need renaming. FYI, I've
tried running file-renaming scripts without much success. The script
never seems to get them all.
Get a better script. I haven't gone looking for one, but I need one
myself so I'm intending to write one.
--
David Empson
dempson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
.
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