rename-file gets "Invalid argument" on Windows 10

rename-file gets "Invalid argument" on Windows 10

[Steinar Bang]

Platform: Windows 10,
          GNU Emacs 27.2 (build 1, x86_64-w64-mingw32) of 2021-03-26

I get the following error
 Debugger entered--Lisp error: (file-error "Renaming" #("Invalid argument" 0 16 (charset windows-1252)) "c:/Users/sb/News/nnimap+privat:INBOX.SCORE" "c:/Users/sb/News/nnimap+privat:INBOX.SCORE~")

when running this function:
 (rename-file "~/News/nnimap+privat:INBOX.SCORE" "~/News/nnimap+privat:INBOX.SCORE~" t)

Except for the directions of the slashes there is a file at the path
"c:/Users/sb/News/nnimap+privat:INBOX.SCORE".

There is also a file at "c:/Users/sb/News/nnimap+privat:INBOX.SCORE~",
but the third t argument of rename-file should take care of that...?

Any ideas?

I have tried turning the slashes into backslashes (and doubling them),
but I get the same error (with forward slashes).

Are there any of the other characters in the file name that may cause
problems on the windows file system?  If so, is there a way to work
around them, given that I can't do anything about the file names?

Thanks!

Re: rename-file gets "Invalid argument" on Windows 10

[Óscar Fuentes]

Steinar Bang <sb@dod.no> writes:

> Platform: Windows 10,
>           GNU Emacs 27.2 (build 1, x86_64-w64-mingw32) of 2021-03-26
>
> I get the following error
>  Debugger entered--Lisp error: (file-error "Renaming" #("Invalid argument" 0 16 (charset windows-1252)) "c:/Users/sb/News/nnimap+privat:INBOX.SCORE" "c:/Users/sb/News/nnimap+privat:INBOX.SCORE~")
>
> when running this function:
>  (rename-file "~/News/nnimap+privat:INBOX.SCORE" "~/News/nnimap+privat:INBOX.SCORE~" t)
>
> Except for the directions of the slashes there is a file at the path
> "c:/Users/sb/News/nnimap+privat:INBOX.SCORE".
>
> There is also a file at "c:/Users/sb/News/nnimap+privat:INBOX.SCORE~",
> but the third t argument of rename-file should take care of that...?
>
> Any ideas?
>
> I have tried turning the slashes into backslashes (and doubling them),
> but I get the same error (with forward slashes).
>
> Are there any of the other characters in the file name that may cause
> problems on the windows file system?  If so, is there a way to work
> around them, given that I can't do anything about the file names?

`:' is not a legal character on Windows file names.

See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/naming-a-file
for more details.