Re: [cross-project-issues-dev] Long file names (re eclipse.platform post

[Andrew Niefer <aniefer@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Note that this in this particular example,
and in previous cases where this has been a problem in the platform, the
offending filename is part of a generated source plugin.

In the platform, this is addressed by
using the new individual source bundles instead of the old style source
plug-ins.
I would suggest that other project should
look into making this change as well, especially if they are experiencing
path length issues.

http://wiki.eclipse.org/PDEBuild/Individual_Source_Bundles

-Andrew

"Walter Harley" <wharley@xxxxxxx>
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03/03/2008 01:02 PM

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Subject	[cross-project-issues-dev] Long file names (re eclipse.platform        post)

Michael Moser just posted the following to the eclipse.platform
newsgroup, and I thought it might deserve mention on this list.  

I'm not sure what the actual Windows limit is.  In
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_systems the limit of the
NTFS file system is described as being up to 32k characters, with each
individual segment being up to 255 characters; FAT32 is less well
defined but still more than 260 characters total.  But I think that
some
tools - possibly including Windows Explorer and probably including the
Windows zip tool - don't handle paths longer than 255 characters total;
and I don't know what the filesystem on Michael's memory stick is.

Here's Michael's post:

"Michael Moser" <mmo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:fqh639$942$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx...
>I would like to bring up an issue that is getting darn annoying and,
> alas, also getting more and more frequent when dealing with eclipse
and 
> misc. plugins on Windows and that is, that the filenames of misc.
> plugins and their support files tend to get longer and longer up to
a 
> point where this suddenly interferes or even blocks normal everyday
> work. Suddenly files can not be copied or moved or backed up any more
> and all kind of "normal" operations are suddenly aborted
with
"filename 
> too long" errors that then require annoying and unneccessary
fiddling
to 
> overcome and fix that situation!
> 
> E.g. I recently wanted to collect misc. plugins we are using in our
> project in a directory "C:\eclipse_plugins". Trying to copy
those
files 
> later to a memory stick failed because of "filenames too long".
When I

> drilled down I had to learn that by creating a new top-level directory
I 
> had ended up with a filename 
>
"C:\eclipse_plugins\DTP-sdk-1.5\eclipse\plugins\org.eclipse.datatools.so
urce_1.5.1.200709251\src\org.eclipse.datatools.connectivity.sqm.server.u
i_1.0.0.200709141\schema\org_eclipse_datatools_connectivity_sqm_server_u
i_ServerExplorerInitializationProvider.html" 
> (~260 characters long which obviously exceeds Windows limit of 255
> characters).
> 
> I also already had cases, where it was impossible to copy eclipse
> plugins to another machines, because already the 
> \\<machinename>\<sharename>...-prefix was enough to yield
too long and

> hence unusable filenames!
> 
> While I fully understand (and appreciate!) that eclipse distributions
> use unique version identifications to make sure, there is no "library
> version hell" developing and that .jar files can be uniquely
identified, 
> I think we need to find and use other mechanisms than ever growing
> filenames and filename suffixes for this purpose (esp. multiple ones
on 
> different levels like in the example above)! If we don't do that we
will 
> end up with situations, where eclipse plugins will be usable ONLY
when

> placed in a "C:\e"-root directory and otherwise be useless,
inaccessible 
> and maybe even undeleteable!
> 
> Developers, PLEASE try to avoid such unnecessarily long filenames!
> 
> Michael
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