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Re: Moving Linux-specific stuff out of i386-tdep.c
On Mar 8, 5:30pm, Chris Faylor wrote:
> I'm curious what the rationale for an 18 character limit might be.
> Even Windows allows more than that.
Here's what Stan had to say about the matter:
Names need to be 8.3 unique so djgpp works. The critical files
would be only the ones that might actually get used in a djgpp
system, so it's not crucial to have Linux native sources or HP
tests cases be 8.3 unique, but it's simpler just to apply the rule
uniformly.
The 14-char thing is an old System V limitation, and is
potentially more serious, but SysV would simply truncate names,
and if that caused overlaps with other filenames, even the
unpacking process would be a disaster. However, there are
probably very few systems left in the world, with that limitation,
so I have been thinking that we could relax the limitation to,
say, 18-char names, so if you add a ~ for backups, ls can still
list files in four columns. Weak rationale perhaps, but there's
no other technical limitations, and so the criterion can be
usability.
Kevin