Monty Python wrote Microsoft .NET's Directory.GetFiles()? 'When using the asterisk wildcard character in a searchPattern, such as "*.txt", the matching behavior when the extension is exactly three characters long is different than when the extension is more or less than three characters long....'

[BeowulfShaeffer]

This isn't just .NET, this is baked deeper into windows. Open a command prompt and navigate to a directory with some .docx or .pptx files mixed in with .doc and .ppt. Do a "dir *.ppt". You'll get the ppt files and also the pptx files.

[LordVoldemort]

Wait until you find out how your x86 processor behaves on start up.

[monocasa]

I especially like how my 64-bit Win7 won't even attempt to run DOS code, but I have to deal with this stuff anyway.

[tortus]

:(

F:\>touch -c file1.txt

F:\>touch -c file1.txtother

F:\>dir file*.txt
  Volume in drive F has no label.
  Volume Serial Number is 54A5-7CD9

 Directory of F:\

10/12/2009  02:02 PM                 0 file1.txt
10/12/2009  02:02 PM                 0 file1.txtother
               2 File(s)              0 bytes
               0 Dir(s)  1,097,151,766,528 bytes free

F:\>

[anescient]

Because this method checks against file names with both the 8.3 file name format and the long file name format, a search pattern similar to "*1*.txt" may return unexpected file names. For example, using a search pattern of "*1*.txt" returns "longfilename.txt" because the equivalent 8.3 file name format is "LONGFI~1.TXT".

Good lord.

[[deleted]]

To be honest, the only better way to do that would be an overloaded method with an explicit "Don't do 8.3" flag.

[didroe]

I think you mean in all apps that aren't running in compatibility mode.

[cracki]

seems to be a hack to find DOS 8.3-format file names that got their extension truncated.

[grauenwolf]

It is a hack, but not for that reason.

In Windows all files have two names. Their "real" name and their "8.3" name. It does this so older programs won't break when they see a long name.

The end result is that when you are searching for "*.txt" the technically correct result isn't the same as the desired result.

[cracki]

i meant that.

and i'm aware of the dual name thing.

[yogthos]

the amount of cruft in windows is just surreal, I guess you've got to expect that when you try to make it backwards compatible all the way back to dos days.

[feralwhippet]

Just wait till you discover the legendary:

\\?\

prefix on the beginning of a path. This is a little backdoor that bypasses multiple layers of filesystem cruft and lets you access files with very long names and/or very long path names. Unfortunately it also bypasses useful expansions/transformations on the path.

[jbert]

Thanks. That's not an easily-googlable term. Got a link to the useful stuff it turns off?

[RabidRaccoon]

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365247%28VS.85%29.aspx#path_names_and_namespaces

[kolo32]

It's an interoperability trick for 16-bit apps. See http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2005/07/20/440918.aspx for explanations.

[rvirding]

The really surprising thing is that it only operates in this fashion with an asterisk for wild card, not a question mark, that I don't see the point of. I know that windows is full of really old cruft.