"Send To" > "Compressed (zipped) Folder" omitting folders startingwith period / full stop

A

Aidan Whitehall

A colleague's just pointed out that if you use "Send To" > "Compressed
(zipped) Folder" on a folder that itself contains a subfolder with a
name that starts with a period / full stop (e.g. ".test"), the
subfolder isn't included in the resulting .zip file.

I've replicated this on my XP workstation.

Googling around hasn't shown anything that suggests this is known or
unusual behaviour (haven't found anything on it TBH)

I realise that in other Operating Systems files starting with a
period / full stop have special significance. Does this omission
strike everyone as reasonable?
 
P

Paul

Aidan said:
A colleague's just pointed out that if you use "Send To" > "Compressed
(zipped) Folder" on a folder that itself contains a subfolder with a
name that starts with a period / full stop (e.g. ".test"), the
subfolder isn't included in the resulting .zip file.

I've replicated this on my XP workstation.

Googling around hasn't shown anything that suggests this is known or
unusual behaviour (haven't found anything on it TBH)

I realise that in other Operating Systems files starting with a
period / full stop have special significance. Does this omission
strike everyone as reasonable?

The "leading dot" has a shaky footing.

http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2008/04/14/8389268.aspx

On the one hand, the file system allows it. But Explorer does not.
And that suggests, that the handling of a leading dot, is not
"perfectly transparent" from the end user's perspective.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_name

"In Windows...
The period is allowed as the first character, but certain Windows applications,
such as Windows Explorer, forbid creating or renaming such files (despite this
convention being used in Unix-like systems to describe hidden files and
directories). Among workarounds are using different explorer applications or
saving a file with the desired file name from within an application."

HTH,
Paul
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top