Subject: Re: rsync in cygwin
From: Barry Kelly <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 20:40:24 +0100
List-Id: <cygwin.cygwin.com>

Edward Blum wrote:

> cannot send long-named file
> "/cygdrive/d/Shares/Public/Software/Navision Backup/GB Nav
> 4.0.SP3/Disk1/Additional Interfaces/BusinessNotificationServer/program
> files/Microsoft Business Solutions-Navision/Business
> Notification/Templates/en-GB/Template - Production BOM version - Items
> updat"
> 
> Reading up is it to do with a limitation of windows being 255 maximum
> character set is there any way round this?

Note that most Windows programs (including Windows Explorer) will not be
able to access files and directories whose paths exceed MAX_PATH, i.e.
260 characters (259 including null).

This means that the actual utility of copying such files to the machine
with a later version of Cygwin will probably be limited to manipulation
solely with Cygwin programs.

Details:

The Win32 NT subsystem can handle them, by using the \\?\ pseudo-UNC
syntax, but programs have to be written with that in mind. Most software
written in C & C++, and also many Windows-specific RTLs of other
languages, assume MAX_PATH to be the maximum file length and would
actually crash if forced to handle a file longer than MAX_PATH.

One way around the above issue would be to use a junction or similar to
shorten filenames for other programs.

-- Barry

-- 
http://barrkel.blogspot.com/

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