Similar 8.3 file naming schemes have also existed on earlier CP/M, TRS-80, Atari, and some Data General and Digital Equipment Corporation minicomputer operating systems.
To maintain backward-compatibility with legacy applications (on DOS and Windows 3.1), on FAT and VFAT filesystems, the operating system automatically generates an 8.3 filename for every LFN, through which the file can [also] be opened, renamed, or deleted, although the generated name (e.g. OVI3KV~N) may show little similarity to the original.
[6] NTFS, a file system used by the Windows NT family, supports LFNs natively, but 8.3 names are still available for legacy applications.
This can optionally be disabled system-wide to improve performance in situations where large numbers of similarly named files exist in the same folder.
[7] The ISO 9660 file system (mainly used on compact discs) has similar limitations at the most basic Level 1, with the additional restriction that directory names cannot contain extensions and that some characters (notably hyphens) are not allowed in filenames.
This legacy technology is used in a wide range of products and devices, as a standard for interchanging information, such as compact flash cards used in cameras.
Linux will recognize this extension when reading;[8] the mount option shortname determines whether this feature is used when writing.
Each entry records the name, extension, attributes (archive, directory, hidden, read-only, system and volume), the date and time of creation, the address of the first cluster of the file/directory's data and finally the size of the file/directory.
In Windows NT-based operating systems, the command prompt applet (cmd.exe) accepts long filenames with wildcard characters (question mark ?
[12] Starting with Windows Vista, console commands and PowerShell applets perform limited pattern matching by allowing wildcards in filename and each subdirectory in the file path and silently substituting the first matching directory entry (for example, C:\>CD \prog*\inter* will change the current directory to C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\).