CODEWITHSUNDEEP
windowsbatch-filecmd
R3dChief
R3dChief

Reputation: 191

Windows Short name does not match long name

I am copying a list of files using a prefix (i.e., ABCD*) to match files in a batch script. However, some files that appear to match are being left behind while other files that don't match are getting grabbed.

I ran a dir /X and found that the shortname for a handful of the files didn't match their longname:

4/17/2015  02:04 PM   554  ABCDEF~1.TXT     abcdefghijklmnopqrs.txt
4/17/2015  02:08 PM   123  ABCDEF~2.TXT     1234567890.txt
4/17/2015  03:18 PM   233  987654~1.TXT     abcdefg123456.txt

Any idea why something like this might happen and how to resolve it?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 482

Answers (2)

aphoria
aphoria

Reputation: 20189

If your sample data is representative of your actual files, you could specify ABCDEFG* to workaround this issue.

EDIT

Since the above suggestion is not an option, you could use FSUTIL to remove all of the 8.3 names.

This command will analyze the files in the current directory (.) and display the changes without actually making them.

fsutil 8dot3name strip /t .

Remove the /t parameter to actually remove the 8.3 names.

You can also run:

fsutil 8dot3name strip

to see all of the options.

Upvotes: 2

MC ND
MC ND

Reputation: 70923

Short and long file names are not required to match. The default algoritm is documented here under "How NTFS Generates Short File Names". You can also find it in the wikipedia

You can change the short file name with 

fsutil file setshortname longFileName shortFileName

Upvotes: 1

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