SFM Converts Macintosh HFS Filenames to NTFS Unicode

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This article was previously published under Q117258

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SUMMARY

Microsoft Windows NT Services for Macintosh (SFM) makes it possible for Macintosh clients to create filenames on SFM server volumes that appear to contain characters that are illegal in NTFS filenames, but are legal characters in Macintosh HFS filenames. These include the (ANSI) characters 0x01-0x1F and " * / \ < > ? | .

MORE INFORMATION

Because NTFS is Unicode-based, when a Macintosh client creates a filename on an SFM volume, it must be converted from Macintosh ANSI to Unicode by SFM before being passed to NTFS. Because SFM does the conversion, it can define Unicode values that invalid NTFS characters will map to. It does so by using the Private Use Area range of the Unicode standard.

The following list describes the Unicode character values that can be used in NTFS filenames created by Windows NT applications that, when viewed by Macintosh clients, will appear as the equivalent Macintosh ANSI "invalid" NTFS filename characters:

   Macintosh ANSI  Unicode
   -----------------------------
   0x01-0x1F       0xF001-0xF01F
   "               0xF020
   *               0xF021
   /               0xF022
   <               0xF023
   >               0xF024
   ?               0xF025
   \               0xF026
   |               0xF027

In addition, the following three characters are also mapped to the Unicode Private Use Area:

   Macintosh ANSI                                                  Unicode
   -----------------------------------------------------------------------
   Space (0x20)                                                     0xF028
   only if occurring as the last character of the name

   Period (0x2E)                                                    0xF029
   only if occurring as the last character of the name

   Apple's apple logo character (0xF0)                              0xF02A

A space or a period at the end of a filename is not legal in the Win32 name space, but is common in Macintosh file naming practice. Hence, these are mapped to alternate Unicode characters by SFM so that they are accessible by File Manager and other Win32 applications. There is no Unicode equivalent of Apple's apple logo character, therefore it too is mapped to the Private Use Area.

Note: Remember that any unicode mapping done on a filename will make that file inaccessible to windows 95 on other windows clients since only NT supports unicode