DOS long file name support TSR

This web page holds the current source and (not yet!!) executable of DOSLFN, the (IMHO) one-and-only functional Long File Name API provider for plain DOS. While its main use case is MS-DOS 7 (or MS-DOS 7.1), mostly prior to starting Windows95 or Windows98, it can be used with any DOS version and variant, e.g. DR-DOS and FreeDOS.

However, visibility of long file names depends on application awareness, so MS-DOS 6 DIR command will not show up long file names. The (IMHO) best plain DOS application handling long file names is Volkov Commander, a Norton Commander clone.

For more information, please read Documentation in English or in German

History info

After a couple of years of waiting I eventually wrote the long-awaited, really functional DOS long file name support driver. Other implementations I found 5 years after introduction of Windows95 and its long filename API for DOS (MS-DOS 7) lack of functionality and/or were much too large. I implemented all in native assembly and used Borland Turbo Assembler. So the TSR size started with 4 KByte, reading only, no language support. Adding write support, codepage conversion support and Joliet support eventually tend to 12..30 KByte memory consumption. Still small enough! It then fully supports Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and even Arabic DOS with correct display and creation of its file names.

Jason Hood found some bugs (I couldn´t check) and made a fork, doslfn_jh.zip.

Later, Chao Wu (吴wú超chāo) aka Wengier of China DOS union (?) adopted Jason Hoods fork and put that TSR onto various distributions, especially onto Windows PE discs.

Now, 2020, Wengier asked me to take over hosting of DOSLFN source, and so I did. I reordered my web site and made a place (directory) where you read this.

File List

Usage: Please click twice on “Last modified” to get the newest files on top.
The Browse link enables you inspecting the corresponding archive file in your web browser; it's all handled on server side. You can even inspect nice colored source code files there.

The Intended Audience column is either

[ICO]NameLast modifiedSizeDescription
[TXT]what_lfn.en.htm2020-04-05 23:40 9.8KDOSLFN Description + FAQUser
[TXT]what_lfn.de.htm2020-04-05 23:40 15KDOSLFN Description + FAQUser
[ ]doslfn-src.zip2020-03-30 09:38 84KLatest source (unrevised yet) by Wengier (China DOS union)UserBrowse
[ ]porussky.i862004-10-11 17:24 3.0KDOSLFN language replacement fileDeveloper
[ ]doslfnjh.zip2004-07-07 16:59 173KDOSLFN modified by Jason Hood (IMHO not best)UserBrowse
[ ]nihongo.i862003-10-19 21:07 2.6KDOSLFN language replacement fileDeveloper
[ ]c1258uni.tbl2003-10-08 00:59 276 DOSLFN and Volkov Commander OEM↔Unicode transcode tableUser
[ ]cp720uni.tbl2003-10-08 00:59 276 DOSLFN and Volkov Commander OEM↔Unicode transcode tableUser
[TXT]cp720.txt2003-10-08 00:59 1.0KDOSLFN and Volkov Commander OEM↔Unicode transcode tableUser
[TXT]cp1258.txt2003-10-08 00:59 909 DOSLFN and Volkov Commander OEM↔Unicode transcode tableUser
[ ]doslfn.zip2003-06-02 01:42 311KDOS long file name support driver, for FAT and Joliet CDFSUserBrowse
[ ]doslfn_n.zip2003-03-31 22:43 289KOlder (backup) version of DOSLFNUserBrowse