[X4U] Long file names on non-Mac servers

[Stroller]

On 27 Oct 2006, at 08:52, Simon Forster wrote:
> On 27 Oct 2006, at 07:30, Brett Conlon wrote:
>
>> We have a non-Mac server in Pre-Press (sorry the people to ask if  
>> it is
>> Windows or Unix are not available right now). Whenever the  
>> designers in
>> our studio try to copy files with names longer than 31 characters  
>> it gives
>> them a failure warning - no worries... we have this as part of our
>> plotting to Pre-Press procedures.
>>
>> However there are 3 (so far) Macs in our studio that somehow are  
>> breaking
>> this rule.
>
> You've got a Windows 2000 or XP server. Quite why you're seeing the  
> differences eludes me (Stroller, any idea?) but check the OS  
> version on the 3 Macs showing this problem versus the others which  
> aren't. Also, check the mechanism by which the 3 Macs mount the  
> remote volume. Are some connecting via Windows file sharing and  
> some via AFP?

The file-server is surely running Windows, and the the 3 Macs which  
are "breaking this rule" are surely running a different version of OS  
X, and hence a different version of Samba.

I don't often use file names longer than 3 or 5 words, so I can't say  
for sure if this file name convention is fixed in later versions of  
Windows. If a Windows XP or 2003 machine is available then it might  
be worth testing with that, as Windows 2000 is reaching the end of  
its production life & earlier versions of Windows (98 &c) really  
aren't at all reliable.

Is it possible that the partition of the file-share that the files  
are being copied onto is formatted FAT32? NTFS might solve the problem.

If there's no problem with the users changing the names of their  
files to conform to the 31 character limit then a workaround might  
well use Folder Actions &/or Automator. It should be possible to have  
a folder on the desktop of each machine that checks the length of the  
file name and then - as long as the file name is short enough -  
copies it across to the server. If the file name is too long then the  
script should be able refuse to copy the file & throw an alert to the  
user.

Stroller.