Date:	Wed, 23 Oct 1996 09:56:36 +0200 (IST)
From:	Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
To:	SANDMANN AT clio DOT rice DOT edu
Cc:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject:	Re: LFN under W95
In-Reply-To:	<326ca2c2.SANDMANN@clio.rice.edu>
Message-Id:	<Pine.SUN.3.91.961023094933.6813T-100000@is>
Mime-Version:	1.0

On Tue, 22 Oct 1996 SANDMANN AT clio DOT rice DOT edu wrote:

> >  ren Makefile Makefile~
> > 		This renames it to `Makefile~', but the short name stays
> > 		`MAKEFILE'.  This is a bug IMHO.
> 
> Read the documentation for W95 LFN handling.  The problem is that files
> under W95 have TWO names each.  You can refer to it with either name.
> This is the reason the default numeric tail value is 1, so the short names
> are always messed up and pretty useless (but don't conflict either).  If you 
> don't ever use any LFN unaware programs, leave the numeric tail value in
> the registry as it is shipped.

The above happens even when NameNumericTail is left at its default value 
of 1.  So even users who don't change the registry at all will hit this 
problem.

Btw, Windows doesn't mess up the filenames which use all the 8+3 
characters; they just have identical long and short names (except, maybe, 
for the case, if you cared to rename them).  This is true even if 
NameNumericTail is 1.

> You have an expectation which file names will match one to one which isn't
> correct under W95 - the example above is how I EXPECT W95 to behave, since
> I have been messing with it since 1994 betas...  It isn't unix.

It is still wrong IMHO to rename only one part of the filename.  If a 
file can be referenced by any of the two names, they both should be 
changed when the file is renamed.  Otherwise, if you reference the file 
by the wrong name, it was not renamed.

> I would argue that programs that do the above rename and expect them to
> be unique are broken under W95 and should be changed to use a ".extension"

How is it broken to rename a file and expect it to change its name?

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