Wednesday, July 04, 2007
[Computers :: OS] Unexpected DIR Results for Numbered Files
If you have ever used the DIR command to list numbered files in a command prompt and been confused by the output, it may have been due to SFNs.
Here is an example to demonstrate the problem. In a directory with files with long names and numbered filenames, you might type
What happened? Remember that each file that has a long filename has a DOS compatible (8.3) SFN associated with it. These are usually six characters from the filename followed by a swung-dash and a numerical counter. In other words, “Long Filename.txt” would not only have that as it’s name, but also “LONGFI~1.TXT”. And there’s the 1!
If there are multiple LFN files (that are too long or have spaces) that begin with LONGFI—eg “Long File.txt”, “Long Fi.txt”, etc.—then they will be saved as LONGFI~2.txt, LONGFI~3.txt, and so on. Therefore you may get weird results for
There does not seem to be a way around this, but using the /X switch can at least reveal the source of the unexpected results.
Here is an example to demonstrate the problem. In a directory with files with long names and numbered filenames, you might type
dir *1.txt to list all files that end in a 1. However you may end up getting a bunch of files that do not end in a 1 mixed in with the results.What happened? Remember that each file that has a long filename has a DOS compatible (8.3) SFN associated with it. These are usually six characters from the filename followed by a swung-dash and a numerical counter. In other words, “Long Filename.txt” would not only have that as it’s name, but also “LONGFI~1.TXT”. And there’s the 1!
If there are multiple LFN files (that are too long or have spaces) that begin with LONGFI—eg “Long File.txt”, “Long Fi.txt”, etc.—then they will be saved as LONGFI~2.txt, LONGFI~3.txt, and so on. Therefore you may get weird results for
dir *2.txt, dir *8.txt, dir *516.txt…There does not seem to be a way around this, but using the /X switch can at least reveal the source of the unexpected results.
