# Are sidecar files realy viable in practice?

**URL:** <https://tagspaces.discourse.group/t/are-sidecar-files-realy-viable-in-practice/22>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [November 18, 2022, 4:24pm UTC](https://tagspaces.discourse.group/t/are-sidecar-files-realy-viable-in-practice/22 "2022-11-18T16:24:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ZebulonGlitch](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/tagspaces.discourse.group/zebulonglitch/32/10_2.png) [@ZebulonGlitch](https://tagspaces.discourse.group/u/ZebulonGlitch)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 4:24pm UTC](https://tagspaces.discourse.group/t/are-sidecar-files-realy-viable-in-practice/22/1 "2022-11-18T16:24:19Z")

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Hi all, I’m using enough tags lately to start hitting file name limits (~140-180 bytes in most Linux file systems, 4096 for the entire path) So I’m seriously considering changing to sidecars files. Questions:

1. Is there a way to convert from filename [space delimited] syntax to sidecar json?
2. What are the implications of sidecar files when it comes to renaming and moving files around. I don’t see a file-hash in the sidecar json contents which makes me fear that all tags would be lost if a file is ever moved or renamed. Am i understanding correctly or is TagSpaces more clever than this, more like GIT, and able to keep track of stuff that moves around by a content hash?

Many thanks for your time! Overall I enjoy the program, very useful!