Difference between mapped drive and subst?

[Pavel A.]

It appears that, besides of the old good mapping a network share
to a disk letter (NET USE ), you can also subst to UNC path:
subst X: \\server\share\folder

What is the difference between these two ways?

My customers have random file open failures when they
use subst'ed letters - but I am not sure whether this can be
the reason.

For example, does the subst'ed path count towards max.
lenght of file names?

Thanks,
--PA

[Eugene Gershnik]

Post by Pavel A.
It appears that, besides of the old good mapping a network share
subst X: \\server\share\folder
What is the difference between these two ways?

A simple way to discover it is to grab WinObj from sysinternals and compare
where the symbolic link X: points in both cases. I don't know what the
results would be but they would answer your question ;-)

Post by Pavel A.
My customers have random file open failures when they
use subst'ed letters - but I am not sure whether this can be
the reason.

What is the failure code?

Post by Pavel A.
For example, does the subst'ed path count towards max.
lenght of file names?

Most likely not.

[Pavel A.]

Post by Pavel A.
It appears that, besides of the old good mapping a network share
subst X: \\server\share\folder
What is the difference between these two ways?

A simple way to discover it is to grab WinObj from sysinternals and compare where the symbolic link X: points in both cases. I
don't know what the results would be but they would answer your question ;-)

Sorry... of course there will be some difference in the links.
But I wonder how this can change the behavior?

Post by Pavel A.
My customers have random file open failures when they
use subst'ed letters - but I am not sure whether this can be
the reason.

What is the failure code?

I can't really see failure codes :(
They have scripts - perl, jscript and whatever.
They say that, when they use substed letters the scripts fail more often and in more funny manner.
Clients are XP SP2 and servers are win2003 with DFS. Also we have Mcafee antivirus
and other troublesome s/w, but removing it is not possible.

Regards,
--PA

[Eugene Gershnik]

Post by Pavel A.
Sorry... of course there will be some difference in the links.
But I wonder how this can change the behavior?

It shouldn't. The real job is done by the same driver in both cases. Of
course a faulty 3rd party filter may screw up things.

Post by Pavel A.

Post by Eugene Gershnik

Post by Pavel A.
My customers have random file open failures when they
use subst'ed letters - but I am not sure whether this can be
the reason.

What is the failure code?

I can't really see failure codes :(
They have scripts - perl, jscript and whatever.

Why cannot they use UNC paths? They should work fine from any scripting
language.

Post by Pavel A.
They say that, when they use substed letters the scripts fail more
often and in more funny manner. Clients are XP SP2 and servers are win2003
with DFS. Also we have
Mcafee antivirus and other troublesome s/w, but removing it is not
possible.

I would suggest at least temporarily uninstalling (not just disabling) any
AV or other software that has filter drivers on the file I/O. If this fixes
the problem the question should go to McWhatever.