short-windows-path

On Windows, this package tries to generate a short path using javascript, like C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Media Player\Media Renderer\DMR_120.png to C:\PROGRA~2\WINDOW~4\MEDIAR~1\DMR_120.png. On other OS it returns the same path.

This can be used to bypass the 260 character limit on Windows by reducing the path length.

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Methods
  • Simple example of package usage
  • setCacheTime
  • generate
  • generateSync
  • get

Installation

npm install short-windows-path

Methods

This package can be used using CommonJS or ES Module.

// CommonJS
const shortWindowsPath = require('short-windows-path');

// ES Module
import * as shortWindowsPath from 'short-windows-path';

Simple example of package usage

const fs = require('fs');
const p = require('path');
const shortWindowsPath = require('short-windows-path');

shortWindowsPath.setCacheTime(5000); // In milliseconds

// Using shortWindowsPath.generate
(async function(){

	const files = await fs.promises.readdir('C:\\Program Files (x86)');

	let shortened = {};
	console.time('shortWindowsPath.generate');

	for(let key in files)
	{
		const file = files[key];
		const path = p.join('C:\\Program Files (x86)', file);

		let shortPath = await shortWindowsPath.generate(path, true);
		shortened[path] = shortPath;
	}

	console.timeEnd('shortWindowsPath.generate');
	console.log(shortened);

})();

// Using shortWindowsPath.generateSync
(function(){

	const files = fs.readdirSync('C:\\Program Files (x86)');

	let shortened = {};
	console.time('shortWindowsPath.generateSync');

	for(let key in files)
	{
		const file = files[key];
		const path = p.join('C:\\Program Files (x86)', file);

		let shortPath = shortWindowsPath.generateSync(path, true);
		shortened[path] = shortPath;
	}

	console.timeEnd('shortWindowsPath.generateSync');
	console.log(shortened);

})();

// Using shortWindowsPath.get
(async function(){

	const files = await fs.promises.readdir('C:\\Program Files (x86)');

	let shortened = {};
	console.time('shortWindowsPath.get');

	for(let key in files)
	{
		const file = files[key];
		const path = p.join('C:\\Program Files (x86)', file);

		let shortPath = await shortWindowsPath.get(path, true);
		shortened[path] = shortPath;
	}

	console.timeEnd('shortWindowsPath.get');
	console.log(shortened);

})();

setCacheTime

Set the cache time, some data is cached to optimize the generation of the short path and reduce disk reads, the cache may result in not generating the full short path of newly created folder/files if a short path has been generated in the same place recently.

const shortPath = shortWindowsPath.setCacheTime(Int time = 10000);

• time Cache time in milliseconds.

generate

Try to generate the short path and check that it exists, this method is faster than shortWindowsPath.get but may not get the short path for some folder/files, also uses various read functions to generate the path (fs.promises.readdir, fs.promises.stat and fs.existsSync)

const shortPath = await shortWindowsPath.generate(String path, Boolean force = false);

• force Force the sort path generation, by default the short path it is only generated if the path is equal or greater than 260 characters and it will stop generating when the path is below.

generateSync

Try to generate the short path and check that it exists synchronously, this method is faster than shortWindowsPath.get but may not get the short path for some folder/files, also uses various read functions to generate the path (fs.readdir, fs.stat and fs.existsSync)

const shortPath = shortWindowsPath.generateSync(String path, Boolean force = false);

• force Force the sort path generation, by default the short path it is only generated if the path is equal or greater than 260 characters and it will stop generating when the path is below.

get

Get the shorten path using the command for %I in ("path") do @echo %~sI, this can be slower that other methods but it will return the correct short path.

const shortPath = await shortWindowsPath.get(String path, Boolean force = false);

• force Force the sort path generation, by default the short path it is only generated if the path is equal or greater than 260 characters.