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Spaces in file names #2458
Description
While going through epubcheck's tests, I noticed that it throws an error if file names have spaces in them. We previously discussed whether these should be allowed in #808
But in this revision we've changed to referencing the URL standard, so should we revist this issue again? Otherwise, it's strange for epubcheck to ban them when that specification doesn't.
I'm not suggesting we have to allow spaces now, as suddenly allowing spaces may expose interoperability issues hidden by the previous ban, but perhaps we should add a recommendation/restriction against their use to the OCF file and path naming section? It would help to have epubcheck aligned with spec requirements so it's not seen as adding arbitrary restrictions.
Activity
OriKuttner commentedon Oct 16, 2022
iherman commentedon Oct 17, 2022
That sounds like a wise decision/approach to me. This is also in line with the SHOULD NOT proposal of @OriIdan.
That being said, if it is a SHOULD NOT then epubcheck should issue a warning instead of an error, shouldn't it?
rdeltour commentedon Oct 17, 2022
Correct.
That said, if I'm not mistaken, this is already the case. EPUBCheck reports spaces in file names as PKG-010, which is a warning.
mattgarrish commentedon Oct 17, 2022
Right, the error is if you leave the space unencoded, which should be illegal regardless of any change we make.
rdeltour commentedon Oct 21, 2022
I just noticed that PR #2459 only recommends not to use SPACE (U+0020). Shouldn't other whitespace characters be included there too?
OriKuttner commentedon Oct 21, 2022
mattgarrish commentedon Oct 31, 2022
Is it realistic anyone has or would use other whitespace in file names? I'd opt for simplicity and keep the recommendation to space characters since these are likely to be used.
I don't want to spend forever controlling file names! 😄 What characters you can use for optimum compatibility should really be authoring best practices, not spec enforced.