Wrong "same name, different case" message (long pa

[alxwz]

Today I wanted to compare two huge directory trees on one external (USB 2.0) drive (= source) and on one internal hard drive (= target). I created those directory trees as duplicates with another file manager before (DOpus) and I wanted to do another compare with TC (recent version on Win XP SP2, both drives NTFS) just to be sure.

When comparing, I ran into the "Error, two files with the same name but different cases exist on the remote server" message multiple times.

However, those files did not have the same name. Instead, they were identical files with very long names that existed in very long paths. The file names had been cut off at various points by earlier copy operations, so the files could reside in the same directory. The parts of the file names that were identical all had the same case. The complete paths (including the file names) exceeded the 255 character limit.

For a better explanation see the following image:
http://alxwzpubpics.pbwiki.com/f/TC_long_paths.png

DOpus seems to handle those paths and file names fine, while TC doesn't. I'd like to suggest to update TC for long file paths/file names if possible (although I'm not sure that's feasible; this might have been suggested before).

The error message, however, is wrong and misleading. And it isn't even possible in Windows to have two files with the same name, but different case in the same directory.

BTW: When comparing only the two directories (not the whole tree) with the files in question, I don't get this error message, but a "different" result for the files with question marks.

The funny part is that the error message does manage to use more than 255 characters (259 to 262 in my case).

Edit: Does anybody know a tool that will let me search for paths that exceed 255 characters?

[sqa_wizard]

get and install Filename ChrCount

Then open Search dialog - Plugins Tab

Select : "filename_chrcount" - "Pathname(ChrCount)" - ">" - "255"

BTW. TC 7.5 will support long pathnames (see thread New features in Total Commander 7.5 confirmed by the author)

[karlchen]

Hello, Christian.

Apparently the thread starter has never reported back whether T.C. 7.50 solved the issue. (Yes, it did.)

So here is my testing scenario to show can compare filenames being much longer than 259 characters:

Compare Directories

• OS: Windows Vista Home Premium, 32bit
• Total Commander 7.50 PB5
• Source folder:

  C:\temp\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog01\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog02\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog03\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog04\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog05\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog06\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog07\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog08\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog09\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog10\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDogSource

  string length: 429 characters.
• Target folder:

  D:\TC704\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog01\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog02\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog03\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog04\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog05\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog06\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog07\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog08\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog09\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog10\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDogTarget\

  string length: 430 characters.
• Filenames in both folders:

  How to determine the version of Update Rollup 1 for Windows 2000 Service Pack 4.htm
  NirBlog_antivirus-companies-cause-big-headache.html
  Sysinternals Forums - Malware questions - Page 1.htm

  Maximum filename length including path: 513 characters.
• Selected Action: Mark => Compare Directories (Shitft-F2)
• Result:

  The files in the source and target directories look identical!

Repeated the same operation after having duplicated the source folder depth to

C:\temp\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog01\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog02\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog03\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog04\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog05\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog06\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog07\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog08\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog09\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog10\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDogSource\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog01\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog02\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog03\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog04\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog05\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog06\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog07\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog08\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog09\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog10\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDogSource

string length: 851.
Maximum filename length now: 935 characters.
Result still:

The files in the source and target directories look identical!

Synchronize Dirs:

Synchronizing C:\temp\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog01\ to D:\TC704\TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog01\ works flawlessly as well.
First synchronizatin will transfer "TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDogSource" from left to right and "TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDogTarget" from right to left.
Second synchronization compare will find no more didifferences.

Summary:
The "Wrong "same name, different case" message (long pathnames)" error has been fixed by Total Commander 7.50.

Kind regards,
Karl
--
Caveat:
You cannot delete files and folders having names longer than 259 characters to the recycle bin. You have to delete them by pressing shift-del or shift-f8 thus bypassing the recycle bin.
This is not a T.C. deficiency, but a deficiency of the Windows recycle bin.

[ghisler(Author)]

Thanks very much for testing that! I will move this thread to fixed bugs for now. If anyone finds a similar problem, please report a new bug.