File and Directory Names

When are File and Directory Names restricted to Length at Most 8 characters (and must not contain spaces)?

This note is addressed to GEMPACK users who would like to use long file names and/or long directory names. Or filenames or directory names containing spaces.

Recent Releases of GEMPACK (since Release 8)

GEMPACK programs have been continually modified to better handle file and directory names which are long or contain spaces. Nevertheless problems occasionally occur. Problems may also occur when file or directory names contain non-English characters or certain punctuation characters such as ()<>&. So it may be worth following a conservative strategy: to prefer shorter names containing only letters A-Z and digits 0-9.

Older Releases of GEMPACK

In Release 7.0 (or later) of GEMPACK, you can use long names and spaces provided you are using the Fortan compiler LF90 or LF95. See the Release 7 version of GPD-1 (section 4.9) or (Release 8 version of GPD-1 section 5.9) for details. Names with spaces often need double quotes " " around them.

If you are using the Fortran compiler F77L3 or using GEMPACK Release 6.0 or earlier, you should not use long filenames or spaces in filenames.

Summary of our advice for F77L3 users.

The Lahey Fortran compiler F77L3 can not handle more than the original DOS 8.3 format (8 characters plus a full stop and a 3 character suffix) for file names. Directory names are limited to at most 8 characters. You can not use directory or file names containing a space with F77L3.

Summary for Release 6.0 users with the LF90 compiler.

If you are using LF90 version 4.5i or later, you may be able to use long filenames but you can not use filenames containing spaces. Earlier versions or the LF90 compiler probably do not allow you to use long file names. Most of the Windows programs do not cope well with long names and spaces. So we would advise you not to use long names or spaces with GEMPACK programs from Release 6.0 or earlier.

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