Copying/moving files from one filesystem to another fails if filename contains unallowed characters by the other file system

[Otto Kekäläinen]

Steps to reproduce:
1. Open home folder on Ubuntu (file system ext3 or ext4)
2. Make new file called "Cambridge 08\09 images.zip"
3. Insert a USB key made in Windows (file system vfat or ntfs)
4. Copy file to USB key
=> Nautilus complains that it cannot copy the file.

In fact the reason is that the reciving file system (vfat/ntfs) cannot have the character "\" in their file names. In a situation like this Nautilus or GnomeVFS should
a) automatically rename the file to something like "Cambridge 08-09 images.zip" and notify the user that the files was renamed to avoid illegal characters
b) inform the user that the file contains illegal characters, and that it must be renamed before it can be copied/moved.

[WeatherGod (ben-v-root)]

I can confirm this behavior, however, I am hesitant to call this a bug.

My vote is for option 'b', telling the user that the file contains illegal characters and must be renamed. Currently, the system only states "Invalid Filename" which may be confusing to users.

[Otto Kekäläinen (otto)]

Actually the option B has been implemented in the newest Gnome (I just tried), so somebody probably reported this somewhere before.

[Otto Kekäläinen (otto)]

..although the error message could still be a bit better. I opened a bug at Gnome Bugzilla.