Audacity Forum

It seems when exporting multiple as wma (possibly others as well), if a file name is too long the export simply stops there. If it's the first file, there's a warning "Export stopped after 0 files" but no reason given. If it's after the first file, there's not even a warning. It would be more user-friendly to warn the user the export didn't finish and even friendlier to tell him why it stopped.

DickN wrote:It seems when exporting multiple as wma (possibly others as well), if a file name is too long the export simply stops there. If it's the first file, there's a warning "Export stopped after 0 files" but no reason given. If it's after the first file, there's not even a warning. It would be more user-friendly to warn the user the export didn't finish and even friendlier to tell him why it stopped.

This sounds more like a bug (possibly with WMA or FFmpeg export) than a feature request. Export Multiple has limited knowledge of what may have gone wrong but it usually says "stopped after n files " even if n is more than zero.

As far as I know there should be support for 255 characters in file names, though the path is also counted as part of the name. What operating system are you on (for example, Windows 7)?

I exported a WMA at 44100 Hz 96 kbps with 100 characters in the file name, as file 5 of a ten-file Export Multiple (using labels). Please give more details of the file path and name, the sample rate of the tracks, the sample rate/bit rate of the export and whether you are exporting multiple by label or track name.


Thanks


Gale

I'm exporting by labels. The complete destination pathname of one of the offending files was:

C:Documents and SettingsOwnerMy DocumentsMy MusicSermonsEvents & Guests CDsGlenn Meldrum 20112011.08.23 Glenn Meldrum - Going to the Garden with Jesus (Mk 10 &14; Ph 3; Joel 2; Jer 4)(msg)_CD25-Msg - You are the obstacle, I don't need your talents, need empty vessels.wma

That's 283 characters. Deleting the substring, "I don't need your talents, ", which leaves 256 characters, makes it work.

Sample rate was 44100, mono, and bit rate was 24kbps. I'm using Windows XP (SP3).

Thanks for replying.

255 characters is the Windows NTFS file name length limit so Windows won't let you create a file name with more characters than that.

Audacity behaviour is variable here according to the format. With one illegitimate file name between two legitimate ones, WAV, FLAC and MP3 export give an unspecified error that they cannot write, before showing "export cancelled" after the first legitimate file was exported.

OGG export gives no error and lists all three files as successfully exported while exporting the files before and after the illegitimate one and creating no file for the illegitimate name.

All the FFmpeg formats give no explanation of what happened, just showing "export cancelled" after the first legitimate file was exported.

Help > Show log does list "can't open file" errors except for OGG.

Export by tracks behaves the same.

These are low priority issues given file names/paths of this length are exceptional (and file names of that length illegitimate on WIndows). Audacity will never have more information about the error than the operating system provides (as shown in the log), so even if error message were provided for all formats, it wouldn't identify what the real error was.

If we had a length check on the file name in the track or label name, the name could still be legitimate there but too long because of the number of characters in the path to the file.

Ideally (for all formats), Audacity would skip the illegitimate file name and export all legitimate files, giving an error message for each file according to the operating system message, and the Export Multiple "Success" dialogue listing the successfully exported files with the failures listed separately underneath.


Gale

I see. Thanks for the details. I remember DOS had an "assign" command that mapped a path to a pseudo drive letter. Maybe if I dig a little I'll find something similar in Windows.


Illegal character in line, RUBOUT - go away! -- Firesign Theatre