def get_short_path_name(long_name):
    """
    Gets the short path name of a given long path.
    http://stackoverflow.com/a/23598461/200291
    """
    import ctypes
    from ctypes import wintypes

    _GetShortPathNameW = ctypes.windll.kernel32.GetShortPathNameW
    _GetShortPathNameW.argtypes = [wintypes.LPCWSTR, wintypes.LPWSTR, wintypes.DWORD]
    _GetShortPathNameW.restype = wintypes.DWORD
    output_buf_size = 0
    while True:
        output_buf = ctypes.create_unicode_buffer(output_buf_size)
        needed = _GetShortPathNameW(long_name, output_buf, output_buf_size)
        if output_buf_size >= needed:
            return output_buf.value
        else:
            output_buf_size = needed