Naming conventions for the ASCIIZ strings used with LAN Server APIs depend on the type of name. For instance, server or resource names follow different rules than the names for users or groups.

A server is named during the installation of the LAN Server code, where the name is placed in the IBMLAN.INI file in the computername parameter. Subsequently, an application always must refer to that server by that name, preceded by a double backslash (\\).

Any shared resource can be named according to the universal naming convention (UNC). A UNC name consists of a double backslash, the name of the server, another backslash, and the name of the resource: \\servername\netname.

Any shared resource (or portion of a UNC name) can be assigned an alias name of up to 8 bytes. Once assigned an alias, a resource can be addressed simply by the name of the alias, regardless of the server to which the resource is connected.

On HPFS partitions, LAN Server supports directory names of up to 260 bytes, including:

• The drive letter
  
• A colon (:)
  
• All characters in the directory path, including backslashes (\) and slashes (/)
  
• The file or directory name on the end of the path
  
• The null character at the end of the ASCIIZ string

For file allocation table (FAT) disk partitions and all DLS requesters, file names can be up to 8 bytes long; extensions, up to 3 bytes; individual path names, up to 63 bytes; and a fully designated path name, up to 128 bytes.

Other naming restrictions for OS/2 requesters and servers include the following:

• User or group IDs can contain up to 20 bytes, not including the null character at the end of the string.

• Passwords can be up to 14 bytes, not counting the null character at the end.

• Requester, server, and domain names can be up to 15 bytes each, not counting the null character at the end.

• User and group IDs, passwords, workstation names, and domain names cannot use the following characters:

  • ASCII characters less than hexadecimal 21 -
    Any of the following:

    " / \ [ ] : | < > + =
    

    
    Periods (.) can be used; however, a period cannot be used as the first character in a network name, nor can 2 periods be used adjacently. For instance, .work.sta.1 and work..sta.1 are not valid, because of the placement of the periods. The name work.sta.1 is valid.

    LAN API Symbolic Constants and the NETCONS.H header file provide additional information about the formats and lengths of symbolic constants used by LAN Server. For more information about UNC naming conventions and aliases, see the IBM OS/2 LAN Server Version 4.0 Network Administrator Reference Volume 1: Planning, Installation, and Configuration.

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