Actually, it's a little more complicated than that. NTFS supports very large filenames. I believe the actual limit is on the order of 64K characters. If there is real interest I can look it up.
However, there are three different layers that can be used to access NTFS: Win32, Native Windows API, and POSIX. Each one has different rules about case-sensitivity, allowed characters, folder name length, filename length, etc. etc. etc. This actually allows different file systems to be layered on top of NTFS. This is used by a number of SAN and NAS operating systems to "hide" their information within NTFS. Win32 is close to DOS (if you know why it was created, you'd understand why). It has a limit, in most places, of 256 characters. The native API has a limit of 1,024 characters. The POSIX layer doesn't have a limit. Regards, Michael B. Smith MCSE/Exchange MVP http://TheEssentialExchange.com -----Original Message----- From: Ben Scott [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 3:59 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: NTFS take ownership question On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 4:32 PM, Kurt Buff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Problem is, there is a definite limit on file/path specifications with > the Win32 API - after 254 characters, things get really wonky ... Yah, I'll second that. I realized after my last post in this thread that the limit is well below the 1024 characters that NTFS is supposed to support. 1024 characters would be 12 lines of text in an 80-column window. The paths we have issues with are much shorter. 254 characters (3 lines) might be it. You'd think Microsoft would use the same length limits throughout the various Windows components and subsystems, but they apparently don't. -- Ben ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~ ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~
