ShortName 1.1.0

Command-line utility to view and modify 8.3-style short file names on Windows

ShortName

Python command-line utility to view and modify 8.3-style short file names on Windows, with no dependencies.

Table of Contents

• What Is This?
• Setup
  • As a Script
  • Optional Installation
• Usage
  • View the Short Name of a File
  • Set the Short Name of a File
• License

What Is This?

Files with sufficiently long names on Windows may have a second, shorter, hidden name called an 8.3 alias. They are usually automatically generated, but can be set manually as well. This tool allows you to view and change those aliases.

For example, you may have a file named some_long_file_name.txt. With ShortName, you can run:

python ShortName.py set some_long_file_name.txt short.txt

And now some_long_file_name.txt has the hidden alias short.txt.

If the full path to some_long_file_name.txt is C:\Files\some_long_file_name.txt, you can now refer to it almost everywhere as C:\Files\short.txt as well; notepad C:\Files\short.txt will open the same file as notepad C:\Files\some_long_file_name.txt.

Setup

You can run ShortName either as a single-file script ShortName.py, or install it to run it more easily from anywhere.

Regardless of the method, you first need to install Python 3 if you don't have it.

As a Script

• Download ShortName.py

No further installation is required, as it has no dependencies. You can use it immediately as a script, e.g.:

python ShortName.py get .\some_long_file_name.txt

Optional Installation

If you wish to install ShortName—for example, to invoke it from anywhere—you can run:

python -m pip install ShortName

To install ShortName via PyPI.

Alternatively, you can:

1. Download the ShortName repository
2. Unzip it
3. Run python -m pip install <path to unzipped directory>

Regardless of which of installation method you choose, you should then be able to invoke ShortName from anywhere, in either of the following two ways:

1. python -m ShortName get .\some_long_file_name.txt, or
2. ShortName get .\some_long_file_name.txt

To uninstall it, run:

python -m pip uninstall ShortName

Usage

ShortName has two commands, get and set, to either view or modify the short name of a file, respectively.

You can also run python ShortName.py --help for usage information.

View the short name of a file

The command to view the short name of a file is python ShortName.py get FILE.

Example usage:

python ShortName.py get .\some_long_file_name.txt

Example output:

.\SOME_L~1.TXT

Note: If the output is the same as the input, either no short name exists, or the input was already a short name.

Tip: You can also view all files and their short names (if they exist) in cmd with the command dir /x.

Set the Short Name of a File

The command to modify the short name of a file is python ShortName.py set [-q] FILE SHORTNAME.

There are strict naming requirements on 8.3-style short names. Notably, they require:

• True ASCII only, in the 7-bit range
• No spaces
• 1-8 characters (other than .) before the extension
• (Optional) One . followed by 1-3 characters (other than .) for the extension

If a requested short name is invalid, ShortName will report an error that the name could not be set.

Example usage:

python ShortName.py set .\some_long_file_name.txt short.txt

Example output:

Successfully set shortname of .\some_long_file_name.txt to "short.txt"

Note: You can silence the success message with the -q or --quiet option.

License

ShortName is free and open-source software provided under the zlib license.