Obtain short path on Windows

Question

Given a file system path, is there a way to obtain the short path name on Windows within Mathematica?

E.g. C:\Program Files should transform to C:\PROGRA~1 (or similar, depending on the system).

Motivation: Work around problems that occur when non-ASCII characters are present in paths.

Answer 1

Windows Command Line

Here is a way using the Windows command line:

getShortPathName[path_] :=
  Import["!for %p in (\""~~path~~"\") do @echo %~sp", "Text"]

So then:

getShortPathName[$InstallationDirectory]

(* "C:\\PROGRA~1\\WOLFRA~1\\MATHEM~1\\11.2" *)

NETLink

Here is a way using NETLink...

First, we declare the Win32 API function GetShortPathName:

Needs["NETLink`"]
InstallNET[];

getShortPathNameWin32 =
  DefineDLLFunction @
  "[DllImport(\"kernel32.dll\", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
   public static extern int GetShortPathName(
       [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPTStr)] string path,
       [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPTStr)] System.Text.StringBuilder shortPath,
       int shortPathLength
       )
  ";

Next, we define our own function that performs the necessary ceremony to invoke that API function:

$maxPathLength = 260;

getShortPathName[path_] :=
  NETBlock @ Module[{shortPath = NETNew["System.Text.StringBuilder", $maxPathLength]}
  , getShortPathNameWin32[path, shortPath, $maxPathLength]
  ; shortPath@ToString[]
  ]

So then:

getShortPathName[$InstallationDirectory]

(* "C:\\PROGRA~1\\WOLFRA~1\\MATHEM~1\\11.2" *)