3 ms·

The only reason to make a file extension longer is to avoid collisions. NTFS has a file length limit fo 255 characters. And if the company you work for does th

The only reason to make a file extension longer is to avoid collisions. NTFS has a file length limit fo 255 characters. And if the company you work for does things like this: \\SERVER1\Data\Region\SubRegion\SubSubRegion\Reports\Weekly\2014-25\WidgetReport\SubWidgetReports\..... you can eat up space pretty quickly. You might need those extra characters.

chc 12y ago
Just a little nit that I feel compelled to pick: The path length limitation is part of Windows, not NTFS. NTFS has a 255-character limit on individual path components, but it allows for much longer paths than that, just like all modern filesystems do. It's the Windows API that sets MAX_PATH to 260.
- lucb1e 12y ago
  That explains a thing or two, thanks for mentioning it.
- orbitingpluto 12y ago
  Feel free to nitpick. I remember writing to an NTFS parition from Linux. I finally managed to delete the unresponsive directories in Powershell except for one straggler which also had special characters.
oakwhiz 12y ago
I've managed to go past this limit on NTFS and very strange things did happen.
- acdha 12y ago
  Before everyone wised up / bad publicity forced them to, it wasn't uncommon for things like FTP servers to be able to create filenames which were either very long or contained reserved DOS names (e.g. CON, AUX, LPT1, etc.) and were thus undeletable using the Win32 APIs used by Explorer or cmd.exe. The posix and NT-native APIs didn't have this limit so Windows admins either had to find a ported POSIX utility (rm.exe was popular) or learn how to use UNC paths: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365247%28v=vs.85%29.aspx#namespaces http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365247%28v=vs.85%2... Characteristically, Microsoft doesn't seem to be interested in fixing this so everyone who builds a new file sharing service probably has to add layers of script-kiddy protection for backwards compatibility.

chc 12y ago

Just a little nit that I feel compelled to pick: The path length limitation is part of Windows, not NTFS. NTFS has a 255-character limit on individual path components, but it allows for much longer paths than that, just like all modern filesystems do. It's the Windows API that sets MAX_PATH to 260.

lucb1e 12y ago
That explains a thing or two, thanks for mentioning it.
orbitingpluto 12y ago
Feel free to nitpick. I remember writing to an NTFS parition from Linux. I finally managed to delete the unresponsive directories in Powershell except for one straggler which also had special characters.

oakwhiz 12y ago

I've managed to go past this limit on NTFS and very strange things did happen.

acdha 12y ago
Before everyone wised up / bad publicity forced them to, it wasn't uncommon for things like FTP servers to be able to create filenames which were either very long or contained reserved DOS names (e.g. CON, AUX, LPT1, etc.) and were thus undeletable using the Win32 APIs used by Explorer or cmd.exe. The posix and NT-native APIs didn't have this limit so Windows admins either had to find a ported POSIX utility (rm.exe was popular) or learn how to use UNC paths: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365247%28v=vs.85%29.aspx#namespaces http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365247%28v=vs.85%2... Characteristically, Microsoft doesn't seem to be interested in fixing this so everyone who builds a new file sharing service probably has to add layers of script-kiddy protection for backwards compatibility.