MS-DOS directory names with spaces help?

[ComboOfWombo]

So I'm screwing around with an old All-In-One Windows ISO from 2003 that contains every version of Windows up to Server 2003, and the directory names in this ISO have spaces, which doesn't allow me to get to that directory in DOS. Can someone tell me how to get around spaces in DOS directories?

[Wheatley]

"Surround the directory in quotes."

[JackArchive]

"Surround the directory in quotes."

Yeah, just surround in quotes (Yeah that's for Windows and not DOS; I misinterpreted that one). Also, on UNIX or any system based on it, backslashes\ are\ used\ if\ I\ remember\ correctly.

[xelloss]

"Surround the directory in quotes."

Just because DOS looks like a Windows command prompt, that doesn't mean it understands quotes.

[ComboOfWombo]

"Surround the directory in quotes."

Just because DOS looks like a Windows command prompt, that doesn't mean it understands quotes.

Thank you! Every solution I've found upon Google searching was meant for Windows CMD, and like you said, quotes don't work in DOS! It throws up something along the lines of, "Unknown parameters"

[Battler]

You can't get around that. Recreate the ISO without long file names.

[ComboOfWombo]

That's what I was afraid of. Thanks for the help!

[xelloss]

You can't get around that. Recreate the ISO without long file names.

Actually, he could XCOPY the content of the CD to the hard drive, then rename directories using wildcards like this:

C:\>MOVE A?NAME A_NAME

c:\a name => c:\a_name [ok]

Of course this cannot be done on readonly media.

[OldMac]

When LFN support first came out it still needed to be backwards compatible with DOS so LFNs would be stored also as something like SHORTN~1. If you're accessing the disc from an old enough version of DOS that it doesn't support LFN you should be able to see those short names in the directory listing. If the directory listing shows the longer names including spaces then the version of DOS you're using supports accessing LFNs and you should be able to put quotes around the name.

[os2fan2]

You can access spaces under the CMD prompt of OS/2 or Windows, but DOS is different to just the 'command prompt'.

Microsoft called the CMD prompt the 'dos prompt', and people have been confusing the two eversince. Under OS/2, there's an 'os/2 prompt' and a 'dos prompt', and no one ever confused the two.

You can generally manipulate spaces if the command supports wild cards, eg 'ren WP?DATA.?SF WP_DATA._SF. If you can't use wild-cards, it's really a no-go. Even using rabbit-ears won't work. You would be better off using something like an OS/2 prompt.

Another thing is that browsing with COMMAND.COM won't show directories that don't fit 8.3, even if there is no spaces. eg, DOS won't change to a directory WORKPLACE, because that has 9 letters, and most DOS versions don't understand the VLFN hack of microsoft dos 7+.

If you really want to fiddle with directories under DOS, you need to pull them with an NT or OS/2 or linux command. Make sure it understands the joliet or rock-ridge extensions to the cdrom.

[carbonx]

I am afraid a file named "testfile123456.txt" -> "testfi~1.txt"
And a directory "oldjoessecretdokuments" would be "oldjoe~1"

[os2fan2]

DOS itself would not see long file names. If you put oldjoesecretdocuments on a cdrom, DOS simply would not see it. Even the Windows 9x command.com can't see the full long file name under DOS.

The joliet file system was supposed to get around this series.

You could use something like ldir and lren to work around this.