Table of Contents

MBox Filename Restrictions

Here's the problem: I want to be able to easily and clearly mark directory names for audio filesets on my regular Windows working drives to indicate when they have been GAT-tagged.

It would be suave to use a neato artistic glyph like ☸, but anything beyond the bounds of the plain old ASCII code chart tends to cause unexpected problems with older Windows apps (like Robert Hoffman's indispensible package, Trader's Little Helper, which relies on ancient code to create the functional GUI).

And since I'm currently sharing these filesets over to a NAS running a weirdo derivation of Linux, I need to avoid using characters that might inadvertently cause problems there too.

So the next two lists are a quick reminder to me of the reserved characters that absolutely COULDN'T work for my desired purpose.

Linux Reserved Characters

Glyph Glyph Name
/ (forward slash)
'\0' (NUL)

Windows Reserved Characters

Glyph Glyph Name
< (less than)
> (greater than)
: (colon)
(double quote)
/ (forward slash)
\ (backslash)
| (vertical bar or pipe)
? (question mark)
* (asterisk)
AND all control codes (⇐ 31)

The list above was extracted from an MSDN reference page posted at
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa365247(v=vs.85).aspx#naming_conventions
(the dokuwiki interpreter chokes on the parens embedded in the URL, so I don't seem to be able to create a clickable link to that anchor. sorry!)

Randy's list of goofy characters to try using for secret abbreviations

Glyph Glyph Name Comment (reason not to use this glyph)
! (bang) negation operator
# (pound) unix script commenting character
$ (dollar) unix variable signifier, eg, $var1; EOL in regex
% (percent) modulo operator
& (ampersand) concatenation operator
( (left paren) open regex group
) (right paren) close regex group
+ (plus sign) addition operator
; (semicolon) unix script command separator character
= (equals) assignment operator
@ (at sign) HEY FOLKS! IT LOOKS LIKE WE HAVE A WINNER!
[ (left bracket) open regex range
] (right bracket) close regex range
~ (tilde) home directory shortcut
^ (caret) beginning of line in regex
{ (left brace) regex marker
} (right brace) regex marker