Cannot create shortcuts to extremely long paths (Opus and Explorer)

Help & Support
1

Hi,
if I'm in network directory:

\\datenserver\07 KKKKKKK - kaaaaaaaa\••• GESUNDHEIT+»KV-KRANKEN-VERSICHERUNG «\B - BBB ProProo-» KK Beitragseinstufung 2018

or in the identical/same win-Subst(-linked) drive:

K:\•••• GESUNDHEIT+»KV-KRANKEN-VERSICHERUNG «\B - BBB ProProo-» KK Beitragseinstufung 2018

and I want to make a Dopus file link (first in the same directory) of the file:

18-01-17¦11.27¦ --» EINGANG Leeeee BBB - BBBBBBBBeinstufung -» Auszug aus GGG Sssssssverband ... entnehmen, dass als Nachweis für das Arrrrrr-EK nur der Ennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn zulässig ist-02-Document.pdf

with:

  1. right mouse button "Create shortcut" or via -» Toolbar -» copy -» Dropdown -» "Create Shortcut"
    or via
  2. -» Toolbar -» copy -» Dropdown -» "Create extended links" -» with all of the 6 link options
    to create a new one,

the results are:
(1) Concerning 1.: Dopus only creates a shortened file name in the same directory without the extension ".lnk" and so the link does not work;
(2) Concerning 2.: the administrator password is asked and after entering the admin password I see the error message "System cannot find the specified path (...)".

My guess is that the shortcuts/link possibility of Dopus cannot yet process path lengths and files together of more than 255 characters (or Dopus uses not an own shortcut procedure but simply the Windows shortcut procedure of the Win-Explorer witch only supports 255 characters for path and file together).

Many thanks for help and/or fix.

Cheers & Best regards

2

I've debugged this and the issue is in the Windows API that creates shortcuts. We ask it to create the full length path/name, with .lnk on the end, and it truncates it on its side.

Using the \\?\ prefix to disable path-length limitations has no effect on this API, either. It always truncates. The same happens in File Explorer, although it doesn't lose the .lnk extension there for some reason; but the name is still truncated. (If you make the parent folder path longer, you can see very weird things happen in File Explorer as well, FWIW. I think it may have a partial workaround for one of the API's problems, but it's only very partial.)

So this is not an Opus issue, and probably not something we can/will fix.

We could try to detect the situation, create a .lnk somewhere else, then move/rename it, but that is a lot of effort and added complexity that could result in bugs, for something that is best avoided in the first place.

Opus supports long file paths (over 255 characters) in general, but not everything will work, due to limitations of the OS, libraries and third party tools which are outside our control. (Also the server/filesystem at the other end, as you found here: Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V problem with very long paths )

Our aim is to ensure you always have the tools to do basic file management on very long paths, and be able to copy, move, delete and rename them (in particular so you can make them shorter!), but we cannot guarantee everything will work, simply because many of the problems you'll encounter are outside of Opus entirely.

Reiterating what I've said in your recent threads:

You WILL run into problems if you keep using paths like that, even if they aren't in Opus. We STRONGLY recommend you shorten your paths, rather than keep on this road. You'll only find more and more things that don't work, and most people will not fix them even if they can.

Having paths that long as a routine thing suggests you're storing metadata in the paths when it's best to put it somewhere else. If you don't, you are making problems for yourself, especially if another OS is thrown into the mix at the other end.

3

Hi, Leo,
thanks for info.
Regarding your correction of the heading to "extremely" long paths -> Sorry, but I don't find the path

K:\•••• GESUNDHEIT+»KV-KRANKEN-VERSICHERUNG «\B - BBB ProProo-» KK Beitragseinstufung 2018

"extremely" long (...).
It is more the length of the file name:

18-01-17¦11.27¦ --» EINGANG Leeeee BBB - BBBBBBBBeinstufung -» Auszug aus GGG Sssssssverband ... entnehmen, dass als Nachweis für das Arrrrrr-EK nur der Ennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn zulässig ist-02-Document.pdf

and even more clearly the "COMBINATION of a longer path with a longer file name".

Cheers.

4

When I say path I mean the entire thing, name and parent folder(s). It doesn't generally matter which is long, only that the full path is long. They could both be 250 characters and "not extremely long" on their own, but the total would still be "extremely long".

Although the symptoms can be different if one part is long and the other isn't, the general issues are the same. (e.g. Make the parent path really long, then try doing what we're talking about in Explorer. You'll find a weird folder created in one of the parents with a one character name.)