From: "John M. Aldrich" <fighteer AT cs DOT com>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: Windows LFN support
Date: Tue, 24 Dec 1996 15:57:54 -0800
Organization: Two pounds of chaos and a pinch of salt
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References: <199612240755 DOT JAA09429 AT pegasus DOT marques DOT co DOT za>
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To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
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Graeme Pyle wrote:
> 
[Long essay on LFN support snipped]

I think your problem is that native DOS simply does not support long
filenames.  When DJGPP programs make the decision on whether or not to
use LFNs, they first check to see if LFN support is available in the
environment.  Under Win95/Win95 DOS shell, the LFN API is enabled, so
your programs use it.  Under plain DOS, or a DOS reboot, the API is not
present, so your programs assume they are running on a "normal" system.

There are only two ways around this problem that I know of; most of this
is taken from the FAQ so you should probably go back and look at its
discussion on LFNs.

1) Use only Windows 95 to develop and run any of your programs that are
LFN-dependent.  That way, you always get to use the LFN API and never
need to worry about not having it.  If your programs themselves depend
on LFNs, you could theoretically put a check in your programs that
disables them unless they run with LFNs enabled.  (hint:  look up the
_use_lfn() macro in the libc docs)

2) Assuming that you've edited the Win95 registry to disable the
NameNumericTail setting, make all your programs that use LFNs either in
compilation or at runtime LFN-safe by using only names that are unique
in their first 8+3 characters.  All the distributed DJGPP packages use
this convention, in order to avoid exactly the sort of problem you have
encountered.  You should _never_ distribute any program with source
files that do not have unique 8+3 names, unless you specifically state
that your program can only be properly compiled or run under Win95 with
LFNs enabled.

Remember that even though Win95 provides many enhancements to the
operating system, in the end you are still working with plain old 8+3,
16-bit DOS.

Good luck!

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