[TriLUG] question on maximum path length or file name

[Glenn Hennessee]

It does indeed. Thanks a bunch.
glenn

Alan Porter wrote:
>> I'm trying to figure out how long a filename can be or how deeply a file
>> can be nested in terms of the length of the path to get to it. A stat -f
>> / on my system tells me that Namelen equals 255. I assume that this
>> means a file cannot have a length of more that 255 characters but does
>> that include the path to get to that file? I haven't found anything of
>> help so far with google.
>>     
>
>
> On an ext2/ext3 filesystem, there is a limitation of the length of a
> single filename within a directory (since the directory is really just a
> table of names and inodes).
>
> But there is no limitation on the entire path of the file (like the limit
> in DOS), since that information is really only stored in a hop-by-hop
> manner in the directories above the file.
>
> Individual programs might have a limit on the number of characters in a
> file's complete path, but that is not a limitation of the filesystem
> itself.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Alan
>
>
>
>
>
> .
>
>   

-- 
Glenn Hennessee
Department of Chemistry
NC State University
Raleigh, NC 27606
Voice: (919) 515-2947 FAX: (919) 515-8909
Email: Glenn_Hennessee at ncsu.edu