max line length in hive files?

[tomasz86]

Does anyone know if there is any limit how long a line can be in these files?

I'm talking about files like:

hivesys.inf
hivesft.inf
etc.

Does there exist any documentation on this matter? If there is a limit then what is exactly the number of characters allowed to be placed in one line?

I'm asking because there are many lines like this one:

HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ServiceGroupOrder","List",0x00010000,\

        "System Reserved",\

        "Boot Bus Extender",\

        "System Bus Extender",\

        "SCSI miniport",\

        "port",\

        "Primary disk",\

        "SCSI class",\

        "SCSI CDROM class",\

        "filter",\

        "boot file system",\

        "Base",\

        "Pointer Port",\

        "Keyboard Port",\

        "Pointer Class",\

        "Keyboard Class",\

        "Video Init",\

        "Video",\

        "Video Save",\

        "file system",\

        "Event log",\

        "Streams Drivers",\

        "NDIS Wrapper",\

        "PNP_TDI",\

        "NDIS",\

        "TDI",\

        "NetBIOSGroup",\

        "PlugPlay",\

        "SpoolerGroup",\

        "NetDDEGroup",\

        "Parallel arbitrator",\

        "extended base",\

        "RemoteValidation",\

        "PCI Configuration"

Is there any reason why it's divided like that?

[Phenomic]

You can check MS' struct definition for maximum string lengths. Or maybe stuff an extra long string in there and see if it ends up truncated in the registry.

[bphlpt]

It could just be divided that way for ease of reading.

Cheers and Regards

[allen2]

It is most likely to reproduce the regmultisz key positioning after the registry is created.

As for the max size, it may differ between 2000 or XP but the max theorical size should be something about 100MB divided by two for windows 2000 as i remember increasing the max size of the registry size on windows 2000 and making it crash using a value too big.

Edit: found a link that might help it to be clearer:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/124594

Edited August 20, 2012 by allen2

[tomasz86]

Thank you for all the information

I asked about it because I want to automatically add new lines and remove duplicates from those files, and in order to do it I need to merge such divided lines into one (for each entry). I'll try it and let you know if any problems occur.

[dencorso]

I think KB277222 is relevant to your question and, if so, the max size for the assembled registry structure in memory would be way less than implied in allen2's post, although it seems to me to be in line with the numbers in the KB article he gave a link to...