You can’t create a file called CON
13 Aug 2009
Okay, this drove me completely nuts for far too long. Basically, the subversion repository had a file called con.jpg (and one called aon.jpg, bon.jpg, don.jpg but they weren’t an issue) and this caused massive fail when I tried to do a checkout.
Error message:
Can't open "images\alphabet\con.jpg.tmp": the system cannot find the file specified
I deleted files, folders, parent folders, did a fresh checkout and still no joy. And then I cursed subversion, kicked the cat, threw coffee cups out the window, contemplated throwing the laptop out the window, gnashed my teeth … spent some time googling things, spent more time googling with different keywords.
It appears that you cannot have a file or folders in windows called “con” or “con.jpg” or “con.txt” or basically con anything. This isn’t much advertised but it goes all the way back to early DOS days where con was a reserved system word (short for console) I’d mock microsoft, but then I look over my shoulder at certain historical applications which I’ve written and which are still running andI get embarrassed for myself. Anyway, we renamed the con.jpg file in the subversion repository. Everyone else in that team was using Mac/linux so it was just me having weird & wonderful problems.