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#1 09 Nov 2010 04:17

tslavens
Member
Registered: 09 Nov 2010
Posts: 1

Content error for legal NTFS filename characters

Moderator(s),

Hello.  I came here for info on batch files, and the content is great - Thanks!  I don't use them much anymore, and I'm always forgetting the details.  But I didn't see a FAQ page or any direction on where to report errors, so...

On the page about long filenames, under the section "NTFS file system" it states "The period (.) cannot be the first or only character in the filename".  However, since at least Win2000 (and probably earlier) NTFS files and folders can have a leading period in the name.  Try these commands in a command window:

cd /D %userprofile%
md ".LeadingDot"
echo "Test leading dot" > ".LeadingDot.txt"
dir ".*" /w
notepad ".LeadingDot.txt"

The above produces both a folder named with a leading period and a text file named with a leading period in the user profile folder, then opens the created file in notepad.  It's true that Windows Explorer won't let you name a file or folder with a leading period (well, I haven't tested this in Win7), but NTFS supports it.

Regards,
- T

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#2 09 Nov 2010 20:29

Simon Sheppard
Admin
Registered: 27 Aug 2005
Posts: 1,130
Website

Re: Content error for legal NTFS filename characters

Thanks for the feedback - I've changed the wording on that page now

Simon

Edit: Also I've moved this into the 'Meta' forum which seems the best place for suggestions & errata

Last edited by Simon Sheppard (09 Nov 2010 20:31)

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