On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 7:34 PM, Sam Cayze <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>>It is a limitation of the Win32 API. > > Doesn't that mean then that all Copy utilites that are used on Win32 > will crap out on these paths? I have tried many copy utility programs > on these files, and never had an issue.
Well, to be honest, I'm not exactly sure. I'm at the edge of my understanding here. My understanding is that there is the "NT native API", which is the core of the OS, down at a very low level. It was created from scratch for the NT kernel, and doesn't necessarily resemble anything from Microsoft before then. Then there are various subsystems which layer on top of the NT kernel. There is a "Win32 subsystem", which provides an environment designed to be similar to and somewhat compatible with the Win16 API that came from Windows 3.x. There is also a "POSIX subsystem", intended to provide a Unix-like environment on top of the NT kernel. There used to be an OS/2 subsystem; I'm guessing that's gone by now. I suspect the issue is that "Win32 API" may be loosely defined -- it may mean different things to different people. As I understand it, "Win32 API" may technically refer to just the NT subsystem which provides Win32 system call support. But it also see it used to refer to "anything Microsoft packages with Windows, which is built on top of that Win32 API", including the shell libraries, etc. I do know that if you give Windows Explorer a deep path, it will fall apart, as will the roaming profile routines. It may also be that some nominally Windows utilities actually use the "native NT API" rather than the "Win32 API", but that's pure speculation on my part. Or I could be completely wrong about all of this. :-) -- Ben ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~
