# Operating system naming conventions



## Neuwerld

Anyone know of any good resources to find technical information about different operating systems relating to file naming limitations and conventions? Finding the information I'm looking for was easy for Windows, but it's been difficult trying to find complete information about other OSs. I found information for Symbian, but information on others has been scarce and scattered. Wikipedia has some interesting stuff but few sources.

I'm looking for this information because I have to write a ~10 page paper on the following topic: "Consult current literature or the Internet to research file naming conventions for four different operating systems. Note the acceptable range of characters, maximum length, case sensitivity, etc."

Also, is it really the operating system that determines file naming limits? Seems like it's the file system that does so because a single operating system can run different file systems. Like Solaris with UFS, QFS, and ZFS.

:smile: Thanks.


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## hal8000

Here's a page you can modify about unix/linux.

http://lowfatlinux.com/linux-filenames.html

One extra note. In windows it is the file extension (the characters after the period "." that determine file type e.g. note.txt would be a text file in windows).

In unix/linux you do not need a file extension, in fact the "." can be used more than one in a filename so vmlinuz-2.6.36-1smp is a valid file. It is the contents of the file itself that determine file type.

Also Solaris and FreeBSD do not require file extensions.


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## Neuwerld

Nice, thanks for that link and information. Much appreciated.


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## sinclair_tm

You are correct, it has a lot to do with the file system used, and not just the OS. Both are required when thinking about naming a file. I use the Mac OS, and depending on the file system you use will determine if things are case sensitive or not, as well as other things. Also, Macs don't use file extensions by default, as they create what is called a resource fork. If there is no resource fork, they they look at the extension. If no extension, then the OS tries to figure out the file by it's contents or any embedded meta data. If it still finds nothing, then it just waits until you tell it what to open with. There is other things to look at, but searching for HFS and HFS+ should get you started.


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## greenbrucelee

Yes you could buy the MS press books that relate to IT certifications such as:- MCDST 70-271 & 70-272 Supporting Microsoft XP and supporting Microsoft XP applications.

70-270 installation of Microsoft XP

70-620 Installation and confiduration of windows Vista

70-680 Installation and configuration of windows 7 (books not out yet that I can see).


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## Neuwerld

sinclair_tm said:


> You are correct, it has a lot to do with the file system used, and not just the OS. Both are required when thinking about naming a file. I use the Mac OS, and depending on the file system you use will determine if things are case sensitive or not, as well as other things. Also, Macs don't use file extensions by default, as they create what is called a resource fork. If there is no resource fork, they they look at the extension. If no extension, then the OS tries to figure out the file by it's contents or any embedded meta data. If it still finds nothing, then it just waits until you tell it what to open with. There is other things to look at, but searching for HFS and HFS+ should get you started.


Thanks, that's some good information. Also good to hear that what I suspected to be true really is true



greenbrucelee said:


> Yes you could buy the MS press books that relate to IT certifications such as:- MCDST 70-271 & 70-272 Supporting Microsoft XP and supporting Microsoft XP applications.
> 
> 70-270 installation of Microsoft XP
> 
> 70-620 Installation and confiduration of windows Vista
> 
> 70-680 Installation and configuration of windows 7 (books not out yet that I can see).


Cool, thanks, I'll look into that. I would like to get some certifications in the next few years anyway so the books would be useful long term.


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## greenbrucelee

Neuwerld said:


> Thanks, that's some good information. Also good to hear that what I suspected to be true really is true
> 
> 
> Cool, thanks, I'll look into that. I would like to get some certifications in the next few years anyway so the books would be useful long term.


The MCDST retires on March 31st and is being replaced by MCTS and MCITP which depending on the path you take relate to the above mentioned windows 7 and windows vista certs.

However if you can get the MCDST XP before then I would recommend it because if you plan on working in IT then you will find that most companies will still use XP ffor years to come even after Microsoft stop supporting it in 2014.


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