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

  • Thread starter Thread starter Aidan Whitehall
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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?
 
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?
Click to expand...

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
 
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