Path: ...!feeds.phibee-telecom.net!news.mixmin.net!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Muttley@dastardlyhq.com Newsgroups: comp.unix.programmer Subject: Re: Long filenames in DOS/Windows and Unix/Linux Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2024 08:39:21 -0000 (UTC) Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 23 Message-ID: References: <9e7a4bd1-bfbb-4df7-af1a-27ca9625e50bn@googlegroups.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Injection-Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2024 10:39:22 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="505150aa1191500ac8748e59d84a8d4d"; logging-data="1016021"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19rJt0Yc3/z8ElUY3MJUjp9" Cancel-Lock: sha1:Xg9cF2igLszMcET2rEjLQfYzY90= Bytes: 2224 On Sat, 31 Aug 2024 09:27:44 +0100 Richard Kettlewell gabbled: >gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) writes: >> 2) Spaces in filenames are pretty much a necessity from the end-user >> POV (but see below). Yes, it makes things hard for us on the admin >> side of the game. > >I think the thing that makes it hard is not the spaces as such, but the >tooling that makes it inconvenient to handle them, which primarily means >Bourne shell parsing rules. The problem basically ceases to exist once >you’re outside the shell ecosystem. > >The rest of Unix has evolved substantially since the 1970s but shell is >still stuck in this particular trap. It’s like we’re still making making >arrowheads out of flint but everything else from steel. > When parsing is based around words on a line how else exactly would you expect it to be done? Every language tokenises based in seperators so unless you expect the shell to automagically figure out when a filename ends and the next part of the command begins then I would suggest using quotes is a solution thats worked for decades and works fine.