v2.6.4 of QuickHash, due to be released after a few days and beta now available, comes with an exciting new capability.
Windows operating systems have an (at times annoying) limit for folder length called MAX_PATH which is the maximum length that a folder name and file name can be, including drive letter assignment. It's ~260 characters. Though many QH users will never have this issue, I'm aware that QH is increasingly being used for comparisons of large data sets all over the world, often sat on networks, and often put there by software that overrides the MAX_PATH restriction of Windows. So, you can't always access this data using traditional Windows tools, including Windows Explorer.
By calling a Unicode variant of FindAllFiles, the restriction is increased to a whopping 32K characters. Meaning Quickhash will be able to see files that even your operating system does not know are there. It's worthy of note that NTFS does not have the 260 character limit. Instead, it has the, er, 32K limit referred to!
Linux by default (ext3, ext4 etc) has a limit of 4K characters by default and, unlike Windows, does not suffer the disparity between the underlying file system and the overlying operating system. So there's no change for the Linux version, at least, not with regard to file length limitations.
In addition, the "Copy" tab now has a new "UNC Mode" which, when enabled, converts the tab to allow a source UNC path and a destination UNC path which support the new 32K MAX_PATH limit and are Unicode character aware, meaning non-ASCII filenames and directories will also be found, read and copied without disruption...in theory! Again, the Linux version takes care of such characters natively so no special ammendmenets here, although the UNC path functionality will be included.
This new functionality has required a significant change to the "FileS", "Copy" and "Compare Directories" tabs. Arguably enough to merit a new central revision increase to 2.7, but I'm quite snobby about version changes and, in reality, the functionality addition does not impact on enough people to really say it merits such a leap. But due to the large changes, there's lots to test before release, so it will be a while yet.
Meanwhile, there's a beta attached of the Windows version. Please feedback any issues using the 'Issues' button of GitHub but note the official stabe version is 2.6.3 until further notice.
