Uniform Naming Convention

Uniform Naming Convention (also Universal Naming Convention , UNC for short ) is used to designate the addresses of approved resources in a computer network. The UNC address represents a network path via which the resources of other computers in the network can be addressed and used. These resources can be directories (also called folders or file folders) or complete drives , for which a network release must be made beforehand so that the data can be accessed from other computers. The direct use of a UNC address eliminates the need to connect to a network drive , which you can use e.g. B. can be used for permanent data sharing in a home or company network . In some cases it can make sense to also access locally located data via a UNC path.

The structure of UNCs is specified as a Windows data type by Microsoft . Although it can also be used in other operating systems, UNC is primarily used in the context of Microsoft products to access SMB / CIFS , DFS or SharePoint file systems.

syntax

Windows

Network resources

The format of such a network path under Windows is:

\\Servername\Freigabename\Pfad

or.

\\IP-Adresse\Freigabename\Pfad

The name of the computer on which the data is located must always be used as the server name. Since this computer provides the data, it acts as a server. The computer name can be found out:

via the command hostnameor ipconfig /allunder the item Hostname
about the system properties: z. B. Right click on My Computer → Properties or in the Control Panel → System

If the IP address is an IPv6 address, the spelling must be changed because of the not allowed colons:

instead of

\\2001:db8::2468:1357:abcd:3456\Freigabename\Pfad

so

\\2001-db8--2468-1357-abcd-3456.ipv6-literal.net\Freigabename\Pfad

The square brackets usually used for such cases do not work here.

The share name is the name under which the resource was released, e.g. B. a folder name or a drive name.

The path is the directory path where e.g. B. the desired file is saved on the resource.

Local resources

The format for local paths under Windows, i.e. data that is available on the computer used, is:

\\?\C:\Data or \\.\C:\data

This variant also increases the maximum path length from 255 characters to 32,767 characters.

Linux / Unix / MacOS

The input format under Linux / Unix / MacOS is:

//Servername/Freigabename/Pfad

or.

//IP-Adresse/Freigabename/Pfad

Multiple UNC providers

With the Multiple UNC Provider (MUP), other network resources can be reached in addition to the usual SMB drive shares. While support for DFS could already be installed in older Windows versions, a WebDAV drive can be installed with a Windows Vista standard installation using the syntax

\\Servername\DavWWWRoot\Pfad

can be achieved. The syntax used in older versions of Windows

http://Servername/Pfad

but also works with Windows Vista, for example when connecting a network drive. A connection secured via SSL is with the syntax

\\Servername@SSL\DavWWWRoot\Pfad

reachable. The syntax was earlier here

https://Servername/Pfad

References and comments

↑ UNC. In: MSDN. Microsoft, accessed March 28, 2017 .
↑ IPV6 in UNC paths. Retrieved November 19, 2011 .
↑ IPv6 address #Literal IPv6 addresses in UNC path names in the English language Wikipedia
↑ Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces. In: MSDN. Microsoft, accessed March 9, 2010 .

[1] UNC. In: MSDN. Microsoft, accessed March 28, 2017 .

[2] IPV6 in UNC paths. Retrieved November 19, 2011 .

[3] IPv6 address #Literal IPv6 addresses in UNC path names in the English language Wikipedia

[4] Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces. In: MSDN. Microsoft, accessed March 9, 2010 .