Rename to 8.3 DOS format?

ju_c · 2008-05-31 17:02

Converting to short names must be available somewhere but I can't find it. Not in the program, not here and not in a web search. I even tried searching for a python script but what I found after hours of reading (and a headache) did not work. Unless you tell me how to do it, would you please add the feature in the future? It must be easy, if you know how! And thanks for the best renaming program ever!

Stefan · 2008-06-01 11:32

Hi ju, welcome.

Take a look into "Insert" > "Insert Meta Tag" > "File_DOSName" tag

To solve your problem use this two rules:

1. Rule: "Delete" > From Pos 1 till the end (disable "[ ] Skip extension")

2. Rule: "Insert" > "Insert Meta Tag" > File_DOSname

Last edited by Stefan (2008-06-01 11:36)

ju_c · 2008-06-02 13:23

Thank you, Stefan!

I knew it was there somewhere.

PS: When I wrote "Python script" I meant "Pascal script". My brain got confused after reading programming scripts and how-to's.

Stefan · 2008-06-02 14:55

Glad it works.
Thread could now be moved to "Help and Support"

ju_c · 2008-06-03 23:48

When I read your reply on how to rename to short names I only opened Renamer and looked, I did not actually try renaming since I didn't need to at the time. Today I wanted to try it on a sample folder, for real. But all I got were errors:

1. Rule: "Delete" > From Pos 1 till the end (disable "[ ] Skip extension")
Warning, found 27 invalid Filename(s)! 27 of which have a duplicate in the list.

2. Rule: "Insert" > "Insert Meta Tag" > File_DOSname
Warning, found 18 invalid Filename(s)! 18 of which has already existing new filepath.

When I renamed anyway, most files were deleted.

Can you help with this?

Thanks again.

krtek · 2008-06-04 16:52

And that's the time when you need to understand how ReNamer works and start to think about what you're actually doing.

1st rule simply clears filename (replaces filename with empty string).
2nd rule inserts dosname from metatag in the given position (it can't replace old name with metatag and that's why you need 1st rule to clear filename).

ReNamer renames files when you press ReName. All what it does before that is making a table of old filenames and new filenames (but it doesn't touch your files) which it will be able to use for actual renaming.
What you see in the "new names" column of the filetable is your oldnames after applying ALL of the active (with tick on the left of the rule) rules in the order that they appear in rules table + eventually manual renaming (by pressing F2 in files table).

And your mistake is in applying rules separately. In that case you replace filenames with nothing (renaming after 1st rule). And then you have nothing to play with. But I'm not sure if files where deleted. They might still occupy place on your harddrive. Maybe ScanDisk can fix that.

Cheers,
Konrad

Last edited by krtek (2008-06-04 16:54)

den4b · 2008-06-08 15:10

ju_c wrote:

1. Rule: "Delete" > From Pos 1 till the end (disable "[ ] Skip extension")
Warning, found 27 invalid Filename(s)! 27 of which have a duplicate in the list.

Correct. ReNamer warns you that your new filenames (which are all empty) are invalid.

ju_c wrote:

2. Rule: "Insert" > "Insert Meta Tag" > File_DOSname
Warning, found 18 invalid Filename(s)! 18 of which has already existing new filepath.

Correct, but it should've show warning for all of the files (unless you changed the number of files). When you are renaming long filename into short - it is basically the same as renaming to it-self, and that is why ReNamer warns you new filepaths already exist.

ju_c wrote:

When I renamed anyway, most files were deleted.

Impossible! I can do all day exactly what you described, and not a single file will be deleted. ReNamer simply renames files from their original name to their new name/path which you see on the preview. In fact, when you apply those to rules above - filenames shouldn't even change, because Windows usually ignores renaming operations which didn't result in the new name.

Bearing in mind the latest point, if you want to change long filenames to their short (DOS 8.3) representations, you'll need to do it in two steps, so they don't collide with each other. Simply insert a dummy character in front of every name ("_" for example), which will prefix DOS names. Rename them, and remove that dummy character in the second go.

krtek · 2008-06-08 16:12

Hi, Denis!
I can't understand the reason for using dummy character as the rules described by Stefan work great.
The only thing it comes to my mind is that Windows still keeps filenames in DOS format and uses some trick to enhance them to long versions, which would mean that this type of renaming wouldn't really rename files, but only change the part to which the filename point to as to an unwind version.
But still, something is changing in the filesystem, so I can't see why Windows could "think" that the operation didn't result in new name and ignore it.

If you would find a while to explain it to me, I would be really greatful.
Konrad

BTW, funny - I was sure that before writing previous post I reproduced that "deleting" behaviour by pressing rename after adding only delete rule, but now after quite a few new tries I can only say, what you've said: Impossible...

Last edited by krtek (2008-06-08 16:56)

Andrew · 2008-06-09 18:55

den4b wrote:

When you are renaming long filename into short - it is basically the same as renaming to it-self, and that is why ReNamer warns you new filepaths already exist.

Why is it that when you rename 8.3 filenames to 8.3 names, there's no warning, but while renaming LFNs to 8.3 names, there is? Doesn't it involve renaming the files to themselves in both cases?

Also, sorry to be such a linguistic nitpicker, but Denis can you please change the language of "Warning, found 18 invalid Filename(s)! 18 of which has already existing new filepath." to something better, like "Warning, found 18 invalid Filename(s)! 18 of which conflict with pre-existing names."?

den4b wrote:

Correct, but it should've show warning for all of the files (unless you changed the number of files).

Well Denis, if some files were already in 8.3 format, then no error would have been shown for them as I mentioned above. Maybe the remaining files besides the 18 already had short names?

krtek, Stefan's rules won't work due to the reasons Denis mentioned. Thus, the only way to rename LFNs to 8.3 names currently is to use a dummy character and a 2-step process as follows:

Step 1 - Rule 1) Delete from Position 1 until the End (disable the "skip extension" option)
Step 1 - Rule 2) Insert "!:File_DOSName:" as Prefix ("!" is the dummy character used)

Step 2 - Rule 1) Delete from Position 1 until Count reached 1 (to remove the dummy character) (Denis, shouldn't this be "until Count reaches 1"?)

Finally, Denis what will happen if 8.3 filenames are disabled and this renaming option is used? Has anyone tried this to see if the application throws an error? (To disable 8.3 filenames in XP/Vista, just go to the command prompt, type fsutil behavior set disable8dot3 1, press Enter and then reboot. To re-enable, use fsutil behavior set disable8dot3 0 similarly.)

Last edited by Andrew (2008-06-09 19:05)

den4b · 2008-06-15 13:49

Andrew wrote:

Why is it that when you rename 8.3 filenames to 8.3 names, there's no warning, but while renaming LFNs to 8.3 names, there is? Doesn't it involve renaming the files to themselves in both cases?

When ReNamer validates new names, it checks for several things: 1) new file path is valid (correct, no forbidden characters); 2) new file path is already taken (BUT don't count if new and old file paths are the same, comparing the character wise in case insensitive manner); 3) file file paths exceed maximum length; 4) new file paths have duplicates in the table.

So you see, when renaming LONG to 8.3, new file path is already taken AND new and old file paths are different (character wise) and you get a warning, which is not the case for LONG to LONG or 8.3 to 8.3 renaming.

Andrew wrote:

change the language of "Warning, found 18 invalid Filename(s)! 18 of which has already existing new filepath." to something better, like "Warning, found 18 invalid Filename(s)! 18 of which conflict with pre-existing names."?

I have a feeling that "an already existing new filepath" is somehow different to "pre-existing names", and the latest one could be misinterpreted.

By the way, I fixed the "has/have" problem in validation messages and that "s" in the Delete rule.

Andrew wrote:

what will happen if 8.3 filenames are disabled and this renaming option is used?

I haven't tried, but I think this could make the File_DOSName tag return an empty string, and that's it.

den4b Forum

#1 2008-05-31 17:02

Rename to 8.3 DOS format?

#2 2008-06-01 11:32

Re: Rename to 8.3 DOS format?

#3 2008-06-02 13:23

Re: Rename to 8.3 DOS format?

#4 2008-06-02 14:55

Re: Rename to 8.3 DOS format?

#5 2008-06-03 23:48

Re: Rename to 8.3 DOS format?

#6 2008-06-04 16:52

Re: Rename to 8.3 DOS format?

#7 2008-06-08 15:10

Re: Rename to 8.3 DOS format?

#8 2008-06-08 16:12

Re: Rename to 8.3 DOS format?

#9 2008-06-09 18:55

Re: Rename to 8.3 DOS format?

#10 2008-06-15 13:49

Re: Rename to 8.3 DOS format?

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