Fix "File Name Too Long"

Understanding the Error

File name too long
Invalid argument

Linux limits filename length to 255 bytes.

Find Too-Long Filenames

# Find files with names > 200 chars
find /path -type f -name "????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????" -ls

# Or with perl
find /path -type f -exec perl -e '$l=length($_); if($l>200){print"$l: $_\n"}' {} \;

Fix 1: Rename Long Files

# Using inode number
ls -li
find . -inum INODE -exec mv {} newname \;

Fix 2: Bulk Rename

# Truncate to 100 chars
for f in *; do
    new=$(echo "$f" | cut -c1-100)
    mv "$f" "$new"
done

Fix 3: Avoid Creating Long Filenames

• Set filename limits in applications
• Use timestamps hashed to 64 chars
• Store metadata in database, use IDs as filenames

Filesystem-Specific Limits

• ext4: 255 bytes
• XFS: 255 bytes
• ZFS: 255 ASCII, 511 Unicode
• NTFS (mounted): 255 UTF-16

Check your filesystem:

df -T /path