# To avoid unicode and long file name problems on Windows,
    # convert to the shortname if the file (or parent directory) exists.
    if ( $^O =~ /MSWin32/ and $real ne ':memory:' and $real ne '') {
        require Win32;
        require File::Basename;
        my ($file, $dir, $suffix) = File::Basename::fileparse($real);
        my $short = Win32::GetShortPathName($real);
        if ( $short && -f $short ) {
            # Existing files will work directly.
            $real = $short;
        } elsif ( -d $dir ) {
            # We are creating a new file.
            # Does the directory it's in at least exist?
            $real = join '', grep { defined } Win32::GetShortPathName($dir), $file, $suffix;
        } else {
            # SQLite can't do mkpath anyway.
            # So let it go through as it and fail.
        }
    }