Quote:
...included in that 255 character limit is the entire directory path to the file as well as the filename.


Wrong.

NTFS can handle paths up to about 32,000 characters, but each component can be no longer than 255 characters.

The problem is in the applications themselves.

As I said above, if you're using the C runtime, or the standard Windows API functions, you're limited to MAX_PATH characters which is 260 characters. If you want to use filenames longer than this, you need to prepend (at the API level) your filename with "\\?\", but then Windows won't do path normalisation and stuff, and you'll have to do it yourself.

I've just successfully created a path with 66 components of 240 characters a piece, with a total path length of around 31800 characters. I had to do it programmatically, and both Windows Explorer and cmd.exe are unable to remove it (or even change into it) but it's there.

Now to write some code to get rid of it...


Edited by Roger (01/02/2005 07:47)
_________________________
-- roger