Howdy, Naomi.

First and foremost, I'm no expert at this, and I'm just trying to figure it out like
everyone else here, mainly because we're getting readying to have a MASSIVE database
with thousands upon thousands of files/records, with one portion of the app running under
VFP (Intranet), and the another portion of the app being web based via PHP and MySQL.
We'll be pushing VFP, MySQL, and PHP to the max -- and then some! :^). Anywho, it's
in our best interest to understand this "problem" with VFP.

>My manager told me he disabled the short names generation, but I just tried adir again and
>got the same bad results. Does it have to be disabled not only on the server, but on the
>local PC as well?

Off the top of my head, I would assume that it would have to be disabled on both. In the
registry, if you have short-names turned on, you'll get short names returned under all
circumstances, truncating any file using more than 8 characters. "~" will be used as the 7th
character, followed by a "1" for 8th character. I would also assume that VFP takes note
of this (checking the registry), possibly passing this info on to the server, and that probably
overrides the server's settings. I don't have access to the source, and no one from MS has spoken
up, so I'd turn off both and see what gives. (Shrug.) If that doesn't work, I'd use Mike's
suggestion, entering all of the files into a table, and then just search the table, stash
the file names into an array, and open(), read(), show, whatever(), and close() the files.
If the table is searched frequently, the great thing about doing it this way is that you'll
probably get a good speed increase via Rushmore optimizations :^). That, and you'll be putting
file-system type operations more into the realm of VFP, which is something that you understand
well. Also, the read-write heads on the server's hard-drives will keep hanging around that
particular area of the platters, so a lot of your table will probably be cached to boot :^).
Anywho, I think Mike is on the right track, and that's how I'm going to do it when I have
to write that code. (Shrug.)

Hope this helps,

Randall