[comp.sys.novell] UNIX/DOS/MAC namespaces

mckimg@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (03/04/91)

In article <6698@spdcc.SPDCC.COM> dyer@spdcc.COM (Steve Dyer) writes:
>In article <6638@spdcc.SPDCC.COM> rbraun@spdcc.COM (Rich Braun) writes:
>>It's not only not the cheapest, it's also quite deficient.  How many
>>Unix people are going to like the filenaming limitations imposed by
>>the DOS filesystem?  (eight characters, then a dot, then three more;
>>characters like comma and plus are restricted; etc.)
>
>Rich, are you pulling my leg, or does a Novell NFS file server
>impose DOS filename restrictions on the NFS client??
>
...
>In the same vein, is this also true for Macintosh naming conventions
>when using a Netware server with Appletalk support as an Apple AFP
>fileserver?
>
I thought that this was the whole point of modular namespaces in Netware
3.0/3.1.  If AFP and NFS files were restricted to DOS naming conventions,
then namespaces wouldn't have a raison d'etre.

=========================================================================
Geoffrey W. McKim			Internet: mckimg@ucs.indiana.edu
UCS Networks/LAN Group			BITNET: mckimg@iuamber
Indiana University Bloomington		
855-4643			

"If education cannot help to separate truth from falsehood, beauty from 
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rick@wet.UUCP (Rick Rutledge) (03/06/91)

mckimg@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu writes:
>
>In article <6698@spdcc.SPDCC.COM> dyer@spdcc.COM (Steve Dyer) writes:
>>Rich, are you pulling my leg, or does a Novell NFS file server
>>impose DOS filename restrictions on the NFS client??
>>In the same vein, is this also true for Macintosh naming conventions
>>when using a Netware server with Appletalk support as an Apple AFP
>>fileserver?
Don't know about NFS naming conventions, but NetWare for Macintosh DOES
support Mac naming conventions, allowing a full 32 characters.  When
accessed from DOS, those file names are compressed according to a set of
quite simple rules - illegal characters are stripped, and files whose names
would not be unique through simple truncation are further truncated and
suffixed with serial numbers in the file extension.

I would imagine a similar thing happens to NFS file names.  DOS file names,
since they are a brain-dead subset of NFS/MAC-legal names, appear in those
systems in their DOS form.  When files are renamed from one filesystem to
another, the most recent convention in use overrides the previous
conventions.

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rick Rutledge        {hoptoad|ucsfcca|claris}!wet!rick            rick@wet.UUCP
Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the 
defences of peace must be constructed. (Preamble to the constitution of UNESCO)