conventions / restrictions for JOB names

RE: conventions / restrictions for JOB names

Jay Baldwin — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 13:53:47 GMT

As the saying goes, Chris, "If you want to make an omelette, then you have to break some eggs." 😘

Although I do agree, in the long run it is best to not break the rules.

I just learned yesterday that a certain Microsoft application does strange things when file and folder names end with a period. It's always something!!!

(Azure cloud backup won't sync a file or folder to the cloud if the name ends with a period. IT guy explains: "The . at the end is interpreted by Windows as a device designator according to the error.")

RE: conventions / restrictions for JOB names

Jay Baldwin — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 13:46:02 GMT

Great answer, Jonathan!

RE: conventions / restrictions for JOB names

Paul Montgomery — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 07:32:27 GMT

Thanks very much Jonathan for that comprehensive answer and explanation.

RE: conventions / restrictions for JOB names

Chris Leggett — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 06:22:33 GMT

Thanks Jonathan - very helpful and perhaps the answer we expected - needs documenting better but probably without Jay's additional "special" characters.

RE: conventions / restrictions for JOB names

Jonathan Dagresta — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 02:51:33 GMT

What it says in the User Guide as to allowed characters is correct, except for missing that uppercase letters as allowed. What it says about maximum length of DIV names is also correct (64 characters not including the "DIV_" prefix - or 68 characters if you include the prefix).

And on other pages of the User Guide it mentions that the naming conventions for JOB names is the same as DIV names (as to allowed characters). It doesn't appear that the doc mentions the naming conventions for CLS and GRP names, but it's also the same.

The uppercase letters are not listed, because in the very, very old days the old GUI ( the 'xsh' XyShell) displayed iso-latin (foreign accented) characters in place of uppercase letters that appeared in DIV names at the O/S level. PathFinder ('xzplorer') never did that and apparently we forgot to update the User Guide. I don't remember exactly, but there was some key sequences you types in the XyShell in the names to get the accented characters in the names.

Note that the list of allowed characters in the documentation is what the GUI (PathFinder) allows when you name a New CLS/GRP/JOB/DIV or Rename one of them. At the O/S level you could include other characters, like the periods that Jay mentioned, but it's not recommended to do so (for example PathFinder won't accept a Rename that still includes periods in the name). Many such characters (like periods) will actually display okay in PathFinder and won't really cause any problems in XPP, but be careful because some characters might be problematic.

The 64 character max length for DIV names is a "hard" limit, and the GUI imposes that limit (and it you create longer DIV names than that at the O/S level, then XPP will either ignore those divisions or truncate their names and then not find them or you might cause XPP to die).

There is no imposed max length for CLS/GRP/JOB names in the GUI. You should be able to go longer than 64 characters for those, but within reason. If you go too big you might have problems. I suggest keeping them to max 128 characters (excluding the prefix).

RE: conventions / restrictions for JOB names

Paul Montgomery — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 13:02:56 GMT

Thanks very much Jay and Bart.

I'll enter a documentation ticket for the DIV_ and the JOB_ naming rules so as to clarify any restrictions.

Paul

RE: conventions / restrictions for JOB names

Bart Terryn — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 08:33:52 GMT

I have been using uppercase characters in job names on Windows with no ill effects.
Maybe you need to enter a documentation ticket so that RWS does update that part of the documentation as it is clearly outdated :-)

RE: conventions / restrictions for JOB names

Jay Baldwin — Sat, 23 Oct 2021 17:34:02 GMT

We commonly use periods in our JOB names, as well.

RE: conventions / restrictions for JOB names

Jay Baldwin — Sat, 23 Oct 2021 17:30:37 GMT

We use uppercase characters all the time in our XPP paths, (CLS/GRP/JOB/DIV names as well as root handle names) with no ill effects. We are on Linux. Maybe the case-insensitive nature of Windows is the reason why XPP documentation would dictate lowercase only?

RE: conventions / restrictions for JOB names

Jay Baldwin — Sat, 23 Oct 2021 17:26:11 GMT

In the old days we were told the max length was 71 characters including the "JOB_" prefix. That was a support ticket opened by us against XPP 8 (probably 8.3 or maybe 8.4). Longer than that and PostScript failed trying to render the JOB or JOB/DIV. I have no idea if that has changed in XPP 9.