#!/bin/sh cp problem with long path names/file names

01-08-08, 11:13 AM

Patrick

Hi all

I try to execute a simple shell script under UNIX/Solaris but run into
a problem with too long path names (see example code below which is
close to reality).

Suppose that the first function call works fine but the second one
fails. The only difference I can see is the length of the filename
which I pass as argument to the function CopySource ().

Are there any restrictions in the length of strings I can pass to cp?
Or what could be the problem?

I tried already to have the arguments split over two lines (masking
LF) but this wasn't the solution.

Any help very appreciated

Patrick

P.S: I'm an experienced programmer but not very familiar with UNIX.

#!/bin/sh
#
##----------------------------------------------------------------------
##CREATE FUNCTION FOR COPYING FILES
##----------------------------------------------------------------------

CopySource () {
##--- Arguments: 1. SourceFile, 2. SourcePath, 3.
TargetPath
cp $2/$1 $3
rc=$?
echo $rc
if [ $rc -eq 0 ]; then
echo "Success: $1 copied"
else
echo "Failed: $1 not copied"
fi
}

##----------------------------------------------------------------------
##COPY FILES
##----------------------------------------------------------------------

##-----------------Copy Source Files ----------------------------
SourceDir=/Slevel1/Slevel2/..../Slevel10/Slevel11
TargetDir=/Tlevel1/Tlevel2/..../Tlevel10/Tlevel11
mkdir $TargetDir

CopySource F_T_A_S_M_T.dat $SourceDir $TargetDir

CopySource File_Two_And_Some_More_Text.dat $SourceDir $TargetDir

01-08-08, 12:31 PM

Bill Marcum

On 2008-01-08, Patrick <patrick.matter> wrote:
>> Hi all
>
> I try to execute a simple shell script under UNIX/Solaris but run into
> a problem with too long path names (see example code below which is
> close to reality).
>
> Suppose that the first function call works fine but the second one
> fails. The only difference I can see is the length of the filename
> which I pass as argument to the function CopySource ().
>
> Are there any restrictions in the length of strings I can pass to cp?
> Or what could be the problem?
>
(1) In case a filename or pathname contains spaces, you should quote the
variables.
(2) mkdir will fail if the directory already exists.
[..]

01-08-08, 10:12 PM

Scott Lurndal

Patrick <patrick.matter> writes:
>Hi all
>
>I try to execute a simple shell script under UNIX/Solaris but run into
>a problem with too long path names (see example code below which is
>close to reality).

Maximum path length is file-system specific. You must use the
'getconf' command to determine what the maximum path length is
for the filesystem to which your copy is targetted.

scott

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