limit on length of filenames?

[Daniel Mueller <mueller@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Ferreters

I just ran into trouble running a script tath worked fine until now.

The core of the problem is the following:

yes? use slp.annual_w.mean.1979_1993.-90_-20.T.DeM.cdf
yes? sh da
     currently SET data sets:
    1> ./slp.annual_w.mean.1979_1993.-90_-20.T.DeM.cdf  (default)
 name     title                        I       J       K       L
 EXPVAR   Explained Variance          ...     ...     1:15    ...
 DEXPVAR  Fehler Explained Variance   ...     ...     1:15    ...
 EOF      EOF                         1:144   1:29    1:15    ...
 PC       Zeitreihe                   ...     ...     1:15    1:15

yes? can dat slp.annual_w.mean.1979_1993.-90_-20.T.DeM.cdf
 **ERROR: unknown data set:
slp.annual_w.mean.1979_1993.-90_-20.T.DeM.cdf
yes?

I tried to cancel the file without the .cdf-ending in the name. Same
error.

I CAN cancel the dataset with cancel data 1, but this isn't very useful
for scripts where i cannot count on this dataset being the only one
opened.

I then tried just to shorten the name of the filename by one character,
which makes the whole thing working again:

yes? use slp.annul_w.mean.1979_1993.-90_-20.T.DeM.cdf
yes? sh da
     currently SET data sets:
    1> ./slp.annul_w.mean.1979_1993.-90_-20.T.DeM.cdf  (default)
 name     title                        I       J       K       L
 EXPVAR   Explained Variance          ...     ...     1:15    ...
 DEXPVAR  Fehler Explained Variance   ...     ...     1:15    ...
 EOF      EOF                         1:144   1:29    1:15    ...
 PC       Zeitreihe                   ...     ...     1:15    1:15

yes? can dat slp.annul_w.mean.1979_1993.-90_-20.T.DeM.cdf
yes? 

So ferret cannot cancel properly files with names longer than 44
characters?

I'm working with Version 5.00 - 05/26/99 on Digital UNIX V4.0F  (Rev.
1229).

Well, the workaround is quite clear but not very nice and i hope that if
this wasn't already a known fact i was able to point to a possible bug
or limitation.

regards
Daniel