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Long filename (LFN) support is Microsoft's backward-compatible extension of the 8.3 filename (short filename) naming scheme used in MS-DOS.Long filenames can be more descriptive, including longer filename extensions such as .jpeg, .tiff, and .html that are common on other operating systems, rather than specialized shortened names such as .jpg, .tif, or .htm.
VFAT, a variant of FAT with an extended directory format, was introduced in Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.5. It allowed mixed-case Unicode long filenames (LFNs) in addition to classic 8.3 names by using multiple 32-byte directory entry records for long filenames (in such a way that old 8.3 system software will only recognize one as the valid directory entry).
Screenshot of a Windows command shell showing filenames in a directory Filename list, with long filenames containing comma and space characters as they appear in a software display. A filename or file name is a name used to uniquely identify a computer file in a file system. Different file systems impose different restrictions on filename lengths.
For backwards-compatibility with MS-DOS and older Windows software, which recognizes filenames of a maximum of 11 characters in length with 8.3 format (i.e.: an eight-letter filename, a dot and a three-letter extension, such as autoexec.bat), files with LFNs get stored on disk in 8.3 format (longfilename.txt becoming longfi~1.txt), with the ...
Examples of operating systems that do not impose this limit include Unix-like systems, and Microsoft Windows NT, 95-98, and ME which have no three character limit on extensions for 32-bit or 64-bit applications on file systems other than pre-Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.5 versions of the FAT file system. Some filenames are given extensions ...
Operating system support is needed because there are legacy applications that can work only with 8.3 filenames, but support can be disabled. In this case, an additional filename record and directory entry is added, but both 8.3 and long file name are linked and updated together, unlike a regular hard link.
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Windows 95, with VFAT, introduced support for long file names, and removed the 8.3 name/extension split in file names from non-NT Windows. Lolo classic Mac OS disposed of filename-based extension metadata entirely; it used, instead, a distinct file type code to identify the file format.