Convert long filename to short filename (8.3)

command-line, long-filenames, ruby, short-filenames, windows

Solution

This ruby code uses getShortPathName and don't need additional modules to be installed.

def get_short_win32_filename(long_name)
    require 'win32api'
    win_func = Win32API.new("kernel32","GetShortPathName","PPL"," L")
    buf = 0.chr * 256
    buf[0..long_name.length-1] = long_name
    win_func.call(long_name, buf, buf.length)
    return buf.split(0.chr).first
end

Problem

I want to convert long filenames/path to short filenames (8.3). I'm developing a script that calls a command line tool that only accepts short filenames. So i need to convert `C:\Ruby193\bin\test\New Text Document.txt` to `C:\Ruby193\bin\test\NEWTEX~1.TXT` So far i found How to get long filename from ARGV which uses WIN32API to convert short to long filenames (the opposite of what I want to achieve). Is there any way to get the short filename in Ruby?

Original source

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