dgreen@CS.UCLA.EDU (Dan Greening) (08/23/87)
Could X implementers please seriously consider limiting standard file names
to some "reasonable" length? Or at least, ensure that filename truncation
retains uniqueness? I ask because HP-UX, HP's variant of System V, truncates
file names at 14 characters.
A conflict occurs with the standard cursors, namely:
sb_v_double_arrow.cursor
sb_v_couble_arrow_mask.cursor
sb_right_arrow.cursor
sb_right_arrow_mask.cursor
sb_h_double_arrow.cursor
sb_h_double_arrow_mask.cursor
Equally meaningful equivalents which truncate uniquely are:
sb_v_dbl_arrow.cursor
sb_v_dbl_arrow_mask.cursor
sb_r_arrow.cursor
sb_r_arrow_mask.cursor
sb_h_dbl_arrow.cursor
sb_h_dbl_arrow_mask.cursor
Without some constraint on filename size, incompatibilities are bound to occur
with "portable" software packages (e.g., Ram Rao's X10 toolkit).
Dan Greening Internet dgreen@CS.UCLA.EDU
UUCP ..!{sdcrdcf,ihnp4,trwspp,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!dgreendonn@utah-cs.UUCP (Donn Seeley) (08/30/87)
The irony of all this is that, at least on the hp9000s300 boxen, the underlying directory structure is the Berkeley one. Marketing considerations prompted HP to crimp Berkeley's 256-character filenames back down to 14... Here at Utah we're doing our best to fix this (but our X implementation still doesn't work quite right yet). Maybe you won't need to chop filenames in the future, Donn Seeley University of Utah CS Dept donn@cs.utah.edu 40 46' 6"N 111 50' 34"W (801) 581-5668 utah-cs!donn PS -- xbob is now our standard X implementation tester...
u2@hpcupt1.HP.COM (C Class) (09/04/87)
/ hpcupt1:comp.windows.x / donn@utah-cs.UUCP (Donn Seeley) / 5:47 pm Aug 29, 1987 / The irony of all this is that, at least on the hp9000s300 boxen, the underlying directory structure is the Berkeley one. Marketing considerations prompted HP to crimp Berkeley's 256-character filenames back down to 14... Here at Utah we're doing our best to fix this (but our X implementation still doesn't work quite right yet). Maybe you won't need to chop filenames in the future, Donn Seeley University of Utah CS Dept donn@cs.utah.edu 40 46' 6"N 111 50' 34"W (801) 581-5668 utah-cs!donn PS -- xbob is now our standard X implementation tester... ---------- I think this was done to pass the SVID validation suite... Steve Witten Hewlett-Packard Co. Industrial Applications Center
guy%gorodish@Sun.COM (Guy Harris) (09/07/87)
> > The irony of all this is that, at least on the hp9000s300 boxen, the > > underlying directory structure is the Berkeley one. Marketing > > considerations prompted HP to crimp Berkeley's 256-character filenames > > back down to 14... > > I think this was done to pass the SVID validation suite... It may have been done by somebody under the delusion that it was necessary to pass the SVVS; however, it certainly is not *required* by the SVVS. The SVID says nothing whatsoever about a 14-character maximum filename size; the 4.2BSD file system is perfectly SVID-compliant, as long as "chown" is not super-user only and as long as the group owner of a newly-created file is the effective UID of the creator and not the group owner of the directory. Guy Harris {ihnp4, decvax, seismo, decwrl, ...}!sun!guy guy@sun.com
davel@hpisoa1.HP.COM (Dave Lennert) (09/10/87)
> It may have been done by somebody under the delusion that it was necessary to > pass the SVVS; however, it certainly is not *required* by the SVVS. The SVID > says nothing whatsoever about a 14-character maximum filename size; ... This is true. The reason that HP-UX limits filenames to 14 characters is for System V compatibility, which is stricter than SVID compatibility. There are many System V applications which assume that filenames are 14 characters at most. For example, code like: char name[14]; or printf("%14s\n", filename); (True, in this day and age directory reading should go through opendir() et. al.; however, there are many software vendors and customers who have not come up to the future yet...) As a direct result, HP-UX has been able to import many SysV applications without change which several BSD systems have not been able to. The best solution I'm aware of is to provide two types of filesystems, one that supports 14 char max filenames and one that supports larger. Then customers with applications which cannot tolerate the latter can configure systems with only the former type of filesystem. I would not be surprised to see such a solution appear in HP-UX in the future. -Dave Lennert HP ihnp4!hplabs!hpda!davel