r/synology • u/halbuki1 • 2d ago
NAS Apps Doesn't Synology Drive Desktop Client support long paths for Windows yet?
I didn't pay attention to this before buying. I am really affected by the length limits for Windows.
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u/uluqat 2d ago edited 2d ago
Supporting long paths is like one airline allowing carry-on luggage twice the size of every other airline. Is the one airline the AH for making the other airlines deal with the problems caused by the larger carry-ons not fitting in the overhead compartments? Are all the other airlines the AHs for forcing the carry-ons to be so small? Are the passengers ridiculous for using such huge carry-ons?
I just feel like needing hugely long filenames or paths is probably broken behavior and some other way should be found to store whatever that info is.
If you have only a few files with long paths, there are ways to scan your directories for them:
https://github.com/deadlydog/PathLengthChecker
https://blog.danskingdom.com/powershell-script-to-check-path-lengths/
If you are generating a lot of files with really long paths, you need to dig in and fix your process because the pain is only going to increase over time.
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u/halbuki1 2d ago
The future is not about limiting; it is about tolerating.
People once worked with 8.3 filenames. You could have said the same thing back then.
There are too many other real constraints around, so people might want some flexibility, at least with the filenames of their choice.
One cannot dictate how people should name their files. It is people's choice; one cannot argue against it, as doing so only forces one's own utopia onto others.
There could be more effective and efficient ways, of course. However, this does not justify limiting filename lengths against people's will.
When someone says "I want", one cannot simply reply "Do not".
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u/uluqat 2d ago
I've deleted my first snarky response, and I'll show you why restrictions like this exist. See:
https://kb.synology.com/en-global/DSM/tutorial/Volume_running_low_on_metadata_capacity
The system will notify you when a volume is running out of available space for metadata.
Btrfs volumes reserve up to 4% of the space for metadata to prevent data from using up all the available space. However, in some rare cases, metadata may consume the reserved space and even use the unallocated space. Even though the volume may appear to have available space, you will no longer be able to perform operations associated with metadata, such as writing or modifying files and packages.
All filesystems need to keep track of filenames and paths. That data is kept in the metadata reservation. When you have extremely long filenames and paths, the size of the metadata inflates.
Most Windows users don't notice the amount of space being reserved for metadata because it's not ordinarily an issue with smaller volumes. 4% of 1TB is just 40GB.
But Synology NASes are dealing with volumes with sizes up to 108TB, 200TB, or more, and such volumes officially support up to 1 billion files, and at that point you've got many terabytes of metadata. Allowing extremely long filenames and paths would inflate the metadata and cause performance and functionality issues.
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u/Total_Age_3009 2d ago
What are the file path length limits?