Maximum Filename Lengths

People who can look back to using MS-DOS (shudder!) remember that filenames could be no longer than eight characters, plus a three-letter extension, giving you incredibly descriptive names such as MSRSUME1.DOC. Pre-OS X Macs, on the other hand, extended that limit to 31 characters, which might sound long but could still produce some odd-looking names.

Linux (and Unix) filenames can be up to 255 characters in length. That's an outrageous length for a filename, and if you're getting anywhere even close to that, your picture should appear next to verbose in the dictionary. You're given up to 255 characters, so feel free to be descriptive and accurate, but don't go nuts.

In fact, it's a good idea to keep filenames below 80 characters because that's the width of your average terminal and your filenames will appear on one line without wrapping. But that's just advice, not a requirement. The freedom to describe a file in 200+ characters is yours; just use it wisely.