Windows path limites, was Re: [PATCH v5 2/5] setup: sanity check file size in read_gitfile_gently

Hi Peff,

On 2015-04-28 08:02, Jeff King wrote:

My understanding is that PATH_MAX is set absurdly low on Windows
systems (and doesn't actually represent the real limit of a path!).

Well, yes and no. Yes, it is absurdly low on Windows, and yes, it is not the real limit of a path *if you know how to work around it*. Most Win32 API calls actually do have that absurdly low limit, but internally longer paths can be represented (and there is a hack where you prefix the path -- which must be an absolute one for this hack -- by `\\?\`). Keep in mind, though, that even the Windows Explorer is (at least sometimes) limited by the absurdly low path limit.

Note that we have support for `core.longpaths` in Git for Windows (to be submitted just after I get 2.x out), but it is disabled by default because of the Windows Explorer issue.

Ciao,
Dscho