LongFiles

LongFiles
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Maintained by:	Jason Tribbeck
Description:	LongFiles is a filing system extension which allows you to use more than ten-character filenames on old (before version 4) versions of RISC OS. It is transparent in operation, and works with the vast majority of RISC OS applications.
OS Restrictions:	Not 32-bit compatible
Languages:	English only
Alternatives:	raFS, X-Files
Website:	http://www.tribbeck.com/software/longfiles/

Historical Notes

RISC OS has had long filename support since the release of RISC OS 4 in 1999, so this utility would only be useful for systems using the old-format disks (E or F format or earlier) under RISC OS versions 3.71 and earlier.

Note that if RISC OS 3.1 is being run under RedSquirrel, it is not affected by the infamous 77-file-per-directory limit. RedSquirrel uses HostFS and thus supports long file names and unlimited files per directory.

LongFiles works by storing an additional 'hidden' file within each directory, containing the long filename data. This may give long filenames, but it does so at the expense of reducing the total number of files in a directory from 77 to 76. However, even if the long filename data is unavailable (for example, if the LongFiles module was not loaded) files remain accessible with shortened forms of their names. LongFiles is a kludge, contemporary with – and functionally very similar to – the long filename system used for Windows 95. However, LongFiles dates back even earlier, to 1993/1994.

There is a separate discussion on Long Filename Systems, comparing Longfiles, raFS and X-Files.