Maximum path name?

Alicey · 10th January 2003, 14:33

Running Winamp 2.81 Standard downloaded yesterday with no additional plugins. P2-450 with 256mb RAM running Win98SE, with a 40gb Barracuda IV hard drive formatted to FAT32. I think that's all the technical stuff.

I looked around all the other bug threads and couldn't find this, so here goes.

I've got some MP3s with long filenames and long path names. This makes them generally not work.

Like:

D:\Music\The Chemical Brothers - Brother's Gonna Work It Out\The Chemical Brothers - Brother's Gonna Work It Out - 01 - Brother's Gonna Work It Out, Not Another Drugstore (Planet Nine mix), Block Rockin Beats, This Ain't Chicago, It's Just Begun.mp3

Enqueing this just gives me a blank entry, or if I'm playing an MP3 already it gives it the same filename and length as that MP3.

However:

The Chemical Brothers - Brother's Gonna Work It Out - 02 - Makin' A Living, Hot Wheels (The Chase), The Theme (Unique Mix), Gimme Some Love.mp3

This, in the same directory, works fine. As does:

The Chemical Brothers - Brother's Gonna Work It Out - 04 - Morning Lemon, Mars Needs Women, Thunder, Losing Control, Mother Earth.mp3

And in the same way, these do not work:

The Chemical Brothers - Brother's Gonna Work It Out - 03 - The Jazz, Sidewinder (312 Vs 216 Stomp mix), Doin' It After Dark (D-Ski's dance), Don't Stop The Rock, To A Nation Rockin'.mp3
The Chemical Brothers - Brother's Gonna Work It Out - 05 - The Riot, Trip Harder, Everything Must Go (Chemical Brothers remix), I Think I'm In Love (Chemical Brothers Vocal Remix).mp3

If I move the files to the root of D:\, they all work without a hitch. And if I move them to even just D:\Music\The Chemical Brothers\Brother's Gonna Work It Out\, they work fine.

So I figure it's some kind of issue caused my maximum combined file and path length. Like I said, I didn't see this reported, but it's a problem I can see quite a few people running into, so I'm sorry if it has been.

Alicey · 10th January 2003, 19:59

Grr I screwed the folder path up and it's too late to edit it now. This is the path I meant:

D:\Music\The Chemical Brothers\The Chemical Brothers - Brother's Gonna Work It Out\

Lion King · 10th January 2003, 21:11

this seems to be related to the url length problem:
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=62670

but it also seems that this isn't winamp's bug but a limitation of windows' file open dialog (textpad does the same)

winamp adds only files with a path length of 259 characters, it doesn't play the 259 ones though because windows cuts off the last character of the extension so that the path is invalid

only paths with 258 characters or less are supported by winamp

editing the playlist and adding the correct paths didn't work also

btw. on vfat/fat32 i have a maximum filename length limit of 176 characters

The Chemical Brothers - Brother's Gonna Work It Out - 01 - Brother's Gonna Work It Out, Not Another Drugstore (Planet Nine mix), Block Rockin Beats, This Ain't Chicago, It's Just Begun.mp3 is 188 characters long, is that on ntfs?

all tests with winamp 2.81, win95b, fat32 drive

edit: the same seems to happen on win2k/ntfs and winamp3 (thanks cheezychops)

microsoft's fat32 specification says: "Long names are limited to 255 characters, not including the trailing NUL. The total path length of a long name cannot exceed 260 characters, including the trailing NUL."

so forget your insane long directory/filenames now

D:\Music\Chemical Brothers\Brother's Gonna Work It Out\The Chemical Brothers - Brother's Gonna Work It Out, Not Another Drugstore (Planet Nine mix), Block Rockin Beats, This Ain't Chicago, It's Just Begun.mp3 must be enough, i don't see the why track numbers are needed for pop music mp3s

Alicey · 11th January 2003, 01:58

I found about the path length thing when I ran scandisk earlier, doh. The drive's FAT32, not NTFS. A little reshuffling of my filing system clears the problem and helps make sure it won't happen again with anything else. It's one album that all flows together so track numbers are important, or all the starts and ends will sound very out of place.

Thanks for your help!

DJ Egg · 11th January 2003, 05:54

Yup, as stated so well by LK, this is a Win9x/FAT32 limitation.
And seeing it's definitely not a Winamp bug,
sorry, but I've got no choice but to lock this thread.

btw, if it's any consolation, I also use the same filename format as you:
Artist - Album - Track # - Title

10th January 2003, 14:33	#1
Alicey Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 3	Maximum path name? Running Winamp 2.81 Standard downloaded yesterday with no additional plugins. P2-450 with 256mb RAM running Win98SE, with a 40gb Barracuda IV hard drive formatted to FAT32. I think that's all the technical stuff. I looked around all the other bug threads and couldn't find this, so here goes. I've got some MP3s with long filenames and long path names. This makes them generally not work. Like: D:\Music\The Chemical Brothers - Brother's Gonna Work It Out\The Chemical Brothers - Brother's Gonna Work It Out - 01 - Brother's Gonna Work It Out, Not Another Drugstore (Planet Nine mix), Block Rockin Beats, This Ain't Chicago, It's Just Begun.mp3 Enqueing this just gives me a blank entry, or if I'm playing an MP3 already it gives it the same filename and length as that MP3. However: The Chemical Brothers - Brother's Gonna Work It Out - 02 - Makin' A Living, Hot Wheels (The Chase), The Theme (Unique Mix), Gimme Some Love.mp3 This, in the same directory, works fine. As does: The Chemical Brothers - Brother's Gonna Work It Out - 04 - Morning Lemon, Mars Needs Women, Thunder, Losing Control, Mother Earth.mp3 And in the same way, these do not work: The Chemical Brothers - Brother's Gonna Work It Out - 03 - The Jazz, Sidewinder (312 Vs 216 Stomp mix), Doin' It After Dark (D-Ski's dance), Don't Stop The Rock, To A Nation Rockin'.mp3 The Chemical Brothers - Brother's Gonna Work It Out - 05 - The Riot, Trip Harder, Everything Must Go (Chemical Brothers remix), I Think I'm In Love (Chemical Brothers Vocal Remix).mp3 If I move the files to the root of D:\, they all work without a hitch. And if I move them to even just D:\Music\The Chemical Brothers\Brother's Gonna Work It Out\, they work fine. So I figure it's some kind of issue caused my maximum combined file and path length. Like I said, I didn't see this reported, but it's a problem I can see quite a few people running into, so I'm sorry if it has been. Last edited by Alicey; 10th January 2003 at 15:09.

10th January 2003, 21:11	#3
Lion King Major Dude Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 1,668	this seems to be related to the url length problem: http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=62670 but it also seems that this isn't winamp's bug but a limitation of windows' file open dialog (textpad does the same) winamp adds only files with a path length of 259 characters, it doesn't play the 259 ones though because windows cuts off the last character of the extension so that the path is invalid only paths with 258 characters or less are supported by winamp editing the playlist and adding the correct paths didn't work also btw. on vfat/fat32 i have a maximum filename length limit of 176 characters The Chemical Brothers - Brother's Gonna Work It Out - 01 - Brother's Gonna Work It Out, Not Another Drugstore (Planet Nine mix), Block Rockin Beats, This Ain't Chicago, It's Just Begun.mp3 is 188 characters long, is that on ntfs? all tests with winamp 2.81, win95b, fat32 drive edit: the same seems to happen on win2k/ntfs and winamp3 (thanks cheezychops) microsoft's fat32 specification says: "Long names are limited to 255 characters, not including the trailing NUL. The total path length of a long name cannot exceed 260 characters, including the trailing NUL." so forget your insane long directory/filenames now D:\Music\Chemical Brothers\Brother's Gonna Work It Out\The Chemical Brothers - Brother's Gonna Work It Out, Not Another Drugstore (Planet Nine mix), Block Rockin Beats, This Ain't Chicago, It's Just Begun.mp3 must be enough, i don't see the why track numbers are needed for pop music mp3s Last edited by Lion King; 10th January 2003 at 22:17.

11th January 2003, 05:54	#5
DJ Egg Techorator Winamp & Shoutcast Team Join Date: Jun 2000 Posts: 35,894	Yup, as stated so well by LK, this is a Win9x/FAT32 limitation. And seeing it's definitely not a Winamp bug, sorry, but I've got no choice but to lock this thread. btw, if it's any consolation, I also use the same filename format as you: Artist - Album - Track # - Title Playlist -\|- Twitter

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10th January 2003, 19:59	#2
Alicey Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 3	Grr I screwed the folder path up and it's too late to edit it now. This is the path I meant: D:\Music\The Chemical Brothers\The Chemical Brothers - Brother's Gonna Work It Out\

11th January 2003, 01:58	#4
Alicey Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 3	I found about the path length thing when I ran scandisk earlier, doh. The drive's FAT32, not NTFS. A little reshuffling of my filing system clears the problem and helps make sure it won't happen again with anything else. It's one album that all flows together so track numbers are important, or all the starts and ends will sound very out of place. Thanks for your help!