Whats in a filename? Quite a lot it seems....

Whats in a filename? Quite a lot it seems....

Something so apparently unimportant as a name you give to an image file can be a real problem when you try to display it on a submission here on Orchids Online.

Some background to the problem

Please bear in mind this website runs on a Linux Server.

In 1995, Microsoft added long file name support to Windows, allowing more descriptive names than the limited 8.3 DOS format. Mac users scoffed, having had long file names for a decade and because Windows still stored a DOS file name in the background. Linux was born with long file name support four years before it showed up in Windows. Today, long file names are well supported by all three operating systems though key differences remain.

Linux is case and space sensitive

One of the first culture shocks for people moving from Windows to Linux is the case sensitivity of file names. These files: "filename.jpg", "Filename.jpg", and "FileName.JPG" are the same file in Windows but three unique files in Linux. Silly Windows....how could you confuse these three different filenames?

Linux file names can be up to 255 characters long and can be made up of any characters except forward slash (/) and NUL. Using special characters like those recognized by the shell takes extra effort. You can also use non-printable characters in a file name, but I can't think of a good reason to do so as they must be 'escaped' to do so.

To avoid problems, please stick to alphanumeric characters only in your names and ban all non-printable characters including, # @ $ % & * " ' ( ) | \ / : < > ? or spaces from your names please.

Name Conventions

You can easily develop 'safe' filenames by being a little inventive.

My preference is to always Captalize the first letters of separate parts of a file name to replace spaces. For example, I use "DendrobiumSpeciosum.jpg", instead of "Dendrobium speciosum.jpg".

I'm not sure where or when I picked up this habit but it has been with me for a very long time.

Another naming convention which I use is useful to keep multiple photos in the correct order in your windows filesystem. In the case of "DendrobiumSpeciosum.jpg". Well, lets say you have 20 odd photos of the same plant. Well simply add 01 to the second image you save. So it would become "DendrobiumSpeciosum01.jpg", the third would be "DendrobiumSpeciosum02.jpg", etc, etc. Whenever you take more photos just continue the sequence, it's easy and makes sense!

Some people use a system like "Dendrobium_speciosum.jpg" or "Dendrobium-speciosum.jpg" for their convention. The important thing for you is to make your mind up about what system you like best and then forever stick with it.

Taming file names

Modern operating systems provide a lot of flexibility in naming files however there are some pitfalls when you move files between different operating systems. If you develop your own naming convention which follows all of the rules for all these operating systems you will never have to change a thing again!

regards wellsy