Given you have dos directory and you need an 8 character format of it. Just switch in the parent directory and use DIR command. Here are some examples

We still sometimes need some path in DOS native 8 chars format. Programs like make or build in commands (cp), would require 255 characters paths for path.

GNU make sometimes fails to work with space in path.

use dir /x in parent directory to find 8 character names of sub-dirs:

c:\parentdir>dir /x

Example:

C:\>dir /x
...
11.01.2008  15:47    <DIR>          DOCUME~1     Documents and Settings
01.12.2006  09:10    <DIR>          MYPROJ~1     My Projects
21.01.2011  14:08    <DIR>          PROGRA~1     Program Files
...

Here, you see that Documents and Settings is DOCUME~1 and Program Files is PROGRA~1

have fun