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On my Windows machine I had a folder with a name of four dots - that acted like some kind of rabbithole - how did that happen?
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The folder name was listed in Explorer with just plain four dots .....
When I tried opening it I came into some kind of endless rabbithole loop where I opened the exact same folder again and again - I could do this endlessly. Showing the path like C:ExamplePath................... etc
It was hanging my TypeScript compilation in one specific project. It took me more then a year before I found this folder and it's related problems, because it was rooted deep in nested folders. I never expected an issue like this, so I never looked for it.
I couldn't delete the folder the the normal ways because of the special name. In the end I could remove it by using CommandLine and deleting the parent folder with rd /s /q path.
I tried to create the folder afterwards again, but was unable to do so with both Explorer and Command line.
In my >20 years of using Windows I've never seen this bug before, and I can imagine it can be really annoying and confusing problem for amateur users.
Does anyone know how this could have happened and how to reproduce this issue?
windows filesystems
asked 2 hours ago
Dirk Boer
1446
migrated from serverfault.com 2 hours ago
This question came from our site for system and network administrators.
add a comment |Â
up vote
1
down vote
favorite
The folder name was listed in Explorer with just plain four dots .....
When I tried opening it I came into some kind of endless rabbithole loop where I opened the exact same folder again and again - I could do this endlessly. Showing the path like C:ExamplePath................... etc
It was hanging my TypeScript compilation in one specific project. It took me more then a year before I found this folder and it's related problems, because it was rooted deep in nested folders. I never expected an issue like this, so I never looked for it.
I couldn't delete the folder the the normal ways because of the special name. In the end I could remove it by using CommandLine and deleting the parent folder with rd /s /q path.
I tried to create the folder afterwards again, but was unable to do so with both Explorer and Command line.
In my >20 years of using Windows I've never seen this bug before, and I can imagine it can be really annoying and confusing problem for amateur users.
Does anyone know how this could have happened and how to reproduce this issue?
windows filesystems
asked 2 hours ago
Dirk Boer
1446
migrated from serverfault.com 2 hours ago
This question came from our site for system and network administrators.
add a comment |Â
up vote
1
down vote
favorite
up vote
1
down vote
favorite
The folder name was listed in Explorer with just plain four dots .....
When I tried opening it I came into some kind of endless rabbithole loop where I opened the exact same folder again and again - I could do this endlessly. Showing the path like C:ExamplePath................... etc
It was hanging my TypeScript compilation in one specific project. It took me more then a year before I found this folder and it's related problems, because it was rooted deep in nested folders. I never expected an issue like this, so I never looked for it.
I couldn't delete the folder the the normal ways because of the special name. In the end I could remove it by using CommandLine and deleting the parent folder with rd /s /q path.
I tried to create the folder afterwards again, but was unable to do so with both Explorer and Command line.
In my >20 years of using Windows I've never seen this bug before, and I can imagine it can be really annoying and confusing problem for amateur users.
Does anyone know how this could have happened and how to reproduce this issue?
windows filesystems
asked 2 hours ago
Dirk Boer
1446
The folder name was listed in Explorer with just plain four dots .....
When I tried opening it I came into some kind of endless rabbithole loop where I opened the exact same folder again and again - I could do this endlessly. Showing the path like C:ExamplePath................... etc
It was hanging my TypeScript compilation in one specific project. It took me more then a year before I found this folder and it's related problems, because it was rooted deep in nested folders. I never expected an issue like this, so I never looked for it.
I couldn't delete the folder the the normal ways because of the special name. In the end I could remove it by using CommandLine and deleting the parent folder with rd /s /q path.
I tried to create the folder afterwards again, but was unable to do so with both Explorer and Command line.
In my >20 years of using Windows I've never seen this bug before, and I can imagine it can be really annoying and confusing problem for amateur users.
Does anyone know how this could have happened and how to reproduce this issue?
windows filesystems
windows filesystems
asked 2 hours ago
Dirk Boer
1446
asked 2 hours ago
Dirk Boer
1446
asked 2 hours ago
Dirk Boer
1446
asked 2 hours ago
Dirk Boer
1446
asked 2 hours ago
Dirk Boer
1446
1446
migrated from serverfault.com 2 hours ago
This question came from our site for system and network administrators.
migrated from serverfault.com 2 hours ago
This question came from our site for system and network administrators.
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
1 Answer
1
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oldest
votes
up vote
3
down vote
Win32 doesn't let you create files or folders with names ending in . – all dots are stripped from the end. Trying to create test. makes test appear instead. (This is for compatibility with 8.3 names in old DOS/Win9x era software.)
As a result, whenever you try to access a folder named ...., its name gets reduced to the empty string, and you're back to the folder you were in before.
The NT kernel, however, does allow such names. There are various mechanisms which bypass filename limitations imposed by Win32 APIs – for example, WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) doesn't run on top of Win32 and is unaffected by it. There is also the \? bypass method, a deliberate "backdoor" left in for programs which know what they're doing. Even though you cannot create C:Example...., you can create \?C:Example.... just fine.
Various file managers, archivers, etc. might use the \? method in order to be able to use longer path names than usual – and by doing so, they're also unaffected by the compatibility code within Win32; they bypass dot stripping, as well as translation of magic filenames like CON or NUL.
So it could be that one of your programs 1) always uses \? to access files, and 2) accidentally tried to create a folder named .... – but it's not really possible to know for sure after the fact.
answered 1 hour ago
grawity
224k33459523
thank you for the cool thing I learned today.
– disassemble-number-5
1 hour ago
add a comment |Â
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
3
down vote
Win32 doesn't let you create files or folders with names ending in . – all dots are stripped from the end. Trying to create test. makes test appear instead. (This is for compatibility with 8.3 names in old DOS/Win9x era software.)
As a result, whenever you try to access a folder named ...., its name gets reduced to the empty string, and you're back to the folder you were in before.
The NT kernel, however, does allow such names. There are various mechanisms which bypass filename limitations imposed by Win32 APIs – for example, WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) doesn't run on top of Win32 and is unaffected by it. There is also the \? bypass method, a deliberate "backdoor" left in for programs which know what they're doing. Even though you cannot create C:Example...., you can create \?C:Example.... just fine.
Various file managers, archivers, etc. might use the \? method in order to be able to use longer path names than usual – and by doing so, they're also unaffected by the compatibility code within Win32; they bypass dot stripping, as well as translation of magic filenames like CON or NUL.
So it could be that one of your programs 1) always uses \? to access files, and 2) accidentally tried to create a folder named .... – but it's not really possible to know for sure after the fact.
answered 1 hour ago
grawity
224k33459523
thank you for the cool thing I learned today.
– disassemble-number-5
1 hour ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
Win32 doesn't let you create files or folders with names ending in . – all dots are stripped from the end. Trying to create test. makes test appear instead. (This is for compatibility with 8.3 names in old DOS/Win9x era software.)
As a result, whenever you try to access a folder named ...., its name gets reduced to the empty string, and you're back to the folder you were in before.
The NT kernel, however, does allow such names. There are various mechanisms which bypass filename limitations imposed by Win32 APIs – for example, WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) doesn't run on top of Win32 and is unaffected by it. There is also the \? bypass method, a deliberate "backdoor" left in for programs which know what they're doing. Even though you cannot create C:Example...., you can create \?C:Example.... just fine.
Various file managers, archivers, etc. might use the \? method in order to be able to use longer path names than usual – and by doing so, they're also unaffected by the compatibility code within Win32; they bypass dot stripping, as well as translation of magic filenames like CON or NUL.
So it could be that one of your programs 1) always uses \? to access files, and 2) accidentally tried to create a folder named .... – but it's not really possible to know for sure after the fact.
answered 1 hour ago
grawity
224k33459523
thank you for the cool thing I learned today.
– disassemble-number-5
1 hour ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
up vote
3
down vote
Win32 doesn't let you create files or folders with names ending in . – all dots are stripped from the end. Trying to create test. makes test appear instead. (This is for compatibility with 8.3 names in old DOS/Win9x era software.)
As a result, whenever you try to access a folder named ...., its name gets reduced to the empty string, and you're back to the folder you were in before.
The NT kernel, however, does allow such names. There are various mechanisms which bypass filename limitations imposed by Win32 APIs – for example, WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) doesn't run on top of Win32 and is unaffected by it. There is also the \? bypass method, a deliberate "backdoor" left in for programs which know what they're doing. Even though you cannot create C:Example...., you can create \?C:Example.... just fine.
Various file managers, archivers, etc. might use the \? method in order to be able to use longer path names than usual – and by doing so, they're also unaffected by the compatibility code within Win32; they bypass dot stripping, as well as translation of magic filenames like CON or NUL.
So it could be that one of your programs 1) always uses \? to access files, and 2) accidentally tried to create a folder named .... – but it's not really possible to know for sure after the fact.
answered 1 hour ago
grawity
224k33459523
Win32 doesn't let you create files or folders with names ending in . – all dots are stripped from the end. Trying to create test. makes test appear instead. (This is for compatibility with 8.3 names in old DOS/Win9x era software.)
As a result, whenever you try to access a folder named ...., its name gets reduced to the empty string, and you're back to the folder you were in before.
The NT kernel, however, does allow such names. There are various mechanisms which bypass filename limitations imposed by Win32 APIs – for example, WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) doesn't run on top of Win32 and is unaffected by it. There is also the \? bypass method, a deliberate "backdoor" left in for programs which know what they're doing. Even though you cannot create C:Example...., you can create \?C:Example.... just fine.
Various file managers, archivers, etc. might use the \? method in order to be able to use longer path names than usual – and by doing so, they're also unaffected by the compatibility code within Win32; they bypass dot stripping, as well as translation of magic filenames like CON or NUL.
So it could be that one of your programs 1) always uses \? to access files, and 2) accidentally tried to create a folder named .... – but it's not really possible to know for sure after the fact.
answered 1 hour ago
grawity
224k33459523
edited 1 hour ago
answered 1 hour ago
grawity
224k33459523
answered 1 hour ago
grawity
224k33459523
answered 1 hour ago
grawity
224k33459523
224k33459523
thank you for the cool thing I learned today.
– disassemble-number-5
1 hour ago
add a comment |Â
thank you for the cool thing I learned today.
– disassemble-number-5
1 hour ago
thank you for the cool thing I learned today.
– disassemble-number-5
1 hour ago
thank you for the cool thing I learned today.
– disassemble-number-5
1 hour ago
add a comment |Â
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