W23: Windows Explorer (and FSO) doesn't know how to reliably count files and subfolders - other options?

[Michael Herman \(Parallelspace\)]

DIR directory /S fails and never produces a result.

I have a couple CMD files that re-creates a sample folder and file
hierarchy.

Michael.


"David Lowndes" <davidl@example.invalid> wrote in message
news:j1trb0d09tt5qol7m96f9mtmtq5f1cp1uo@4ax.com...

> >The folder properties dialog in Windows Explorer and the FileSystem

object

> >both on a Windows Server 2003 system doesn't provide accurate counts of

the

> >number of files and subfolders in a parent folder.
> >
> >This is a huge suprise to me that the Windows Explorer folder properties
> >dialog is unreliable.
> >
> >When the length of a file path is at or near the maximum length of 248

for

> >the file path and 260 for the fully qualified path name, Windows Explorer
> >produces a garbage number that can be off by thousands of files.
> >
> >What tool can we use to get an *authoritative* count of the number of

files

> >and subfolders in a parent folder? robocopy is the only utility that

seems

> >to provide an accurate number.

>
> The command prompt DIR seems to be able to manage it.
>
> It is very odd that Explorer can list the file, but nothing much else.
>
> Dave

[David Lowndes]

>DIR directory /S fails and never produces a result.

It worked fine for me. Here's what I tried...

1. Create a folder (C:\N1)
2. Using Explorer I created a txt file in that folder.
3. Edited the file so that it wasn't 0 bytes long.
4. Renamed the file to the maximum length that Explorer allowed.
At this point everything works fine.
5. Renamed the folder to C:\N12
At this point Explorer can't display the properties of the file.
However DIR /S from the root of the drive can still output the file
name and its size.

>I have a couple CMD files that re-creates a sample folder and file
>hierarchy.

Can you post the contents of one - just the bare minimum to reproduce
the issue?

Dave
--
MVP VC++ FAQ: [url]http://www.mvps.org/vcfaq[/url]

[David Lowndes]

>Here you David,

Michael,

I'm sorry, but I can't see the wood for the trees in that lot - a
really *really* simple example would be better to illustrate the
point, there's no need to create monster cmd files. It's difficult to
know what I'm supposed to be checking in the plethora of stuff those
command files create - I only do this in my spare time.

Dave