Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 17:28:14 +0200 (IST)
From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
To: Trond Erik Bones <tebones AT st DOT telia DOT no>
cc: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: Long file names in DOS ?
In-Reply-To: <6bcess$sem$1@pravda.tisip.no>
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.980205171948.29681E-100000@is>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
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On Thu, 5 Feb 1998, Trond Erik Bones wrote:

> I have a few makefiles written for UNIX which consists of long file
> names(longer than 8.3).
> 
> Do I need to change alle file names in my makefile so that GCC and Make(for
> Windows) understands them ?

In general, you don't.  DOS silently truncates the names which exceed 8+3 
limits, so when the Makefile mentions e.g. "ALongFileName.Extension", a 
file whose name was truncated to "alongfil.ext" will fit the bill.

However, there are several gotchas when you are trying to build a package 
whose sources originated on Unix:

   1) Some file names, such as .gdbinit and Makefile.in.in, are illegal 
on DOS, even when truncated.  You will need to change these and edit the 
Makefile(s) to reflect the changes.

   2) When two or more file names yield the same 8+3 name after 
truncation, they will overwrite each other and cause bugs.  You will need 
to rename some of these files to prevent these clashes.

The best way to avoid most of these problems is to use the DJTAR program, 
which comes with the djdev201.zip distribution, to unpack the sources 
(assuming they come in .tar, .tar.Z, or .tar.gz format).  DJTAR will 
rename some illegal names automatically, and will prompt you to supply 
alternate names when some file would overwrite another one because of 
truncation.  (It is still up to you to edit the Makefile to reflect the 
changes done by DJTAR.)