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Author eryksun
Recipients eryksun, levineds, paul.moore, steve.dower, tim.golden, zach.ware
Date 2021-03-24.02:54:50
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Message-id <1616554490.47.0.576104865169.issue43607@roundup.psfhosted.org>
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RFC8089 doesn't specify "a mechanism for translating namespaced paths ["\\?\" and "\\.\"] to or from file URIs", and the Windows shell doesn't support them. So what's the practical benefit of supporting them in nturl2path?

> Windows file paths are limited to 256 characters,

Classically, normal filepaths are limited to MAX_PATH - 1 (259) characters, in most cases, except for a few cases in which the limit is even smaller. 

For a normal filepath, the API replaces slashes with backlashes; resolves relative paths; resolves "." and ".." components; strips trailing dots and spaces from the final path component; and, for relative paths and DOS drive-letter paths, reserves DOS device names in the final path component (e.g. CON, NUL). 

The kernel supports filepaths with up to 32,767 characters, but classically this was only accessible by using a verbatim \\?\ filepath, or by using workarounds based on substitute drives or filesystem mountpoints and symlinks.

With Python 3.6+ in Windows 10, if long paths are enabled in the system, normal filepaths support up to the full 32,767 characters in most cases. The need for the \\?\ prefix is thus limited to the rare case when a verbatim path is required, or when a filepath has to be passed to a legacy application that doesn't support long paths.
History
Date User Action Args
2021-03-24 02:54:50eryksunsetrecipients: + eryksun, paul.moore, tim.golden, zach.ware, steve.dower, levineds
2021-03-24 02:54:50eryksunsetmessageid: <1616554490.47.0.576104865169.issue43607@roundup.psfhosted.org>
2021-03-24 02:54:50eryksunlinkissue43607 messages
2021-03-24 02:54:50eryksuncreate