thodg/libgit2/docs/win32-longpaths.md

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  Date : 2021-04-05T10:59:02
  

  docs: document core.longpaths support

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• docs/win32-longpaths.md

• core.longpaths support
  ======================
  
  Historically, Windows has limited absolute path lengths to `MAX_PATH`
  (260) characters.
  
  Unfortunately, 260 characters is a punishing small maximum.  This is
  especially true for developers where dependencies may have dependencies
  in a folder, each dependency themselves having dependencies in a
  sub-folder, ad (seemingly) infinitum.
  
  So although the Windows APIs _by default_ honor this 260 character
  maximum, you can get around this by using separate APIs.  Git honors a
  `core.longpaths` configuration option that allows some paths on Windows
  to exceed these 260 character limits.
  
  And because they've gone and done it, that means that libgit2 has to
  honor this value, too.
  
  Since `core.longpaths` is a _configuration option_ that means that we
  need to be able to resolve a configuration - including in _the repository
  itself_ in order to know whether long paths should be supported.
  
  Therefore, in libgit2, `core.longpaths` affects paths in working
  directories _only_.  Paths to the repository, and to items inside the
  `.git` folder, must be no longer than 260 characters.
  
  This definition is required to avoid a paradoxical setting: if you
  had a repository in a folder that was 280 characters long, how would
  you know whether `core.longpaths` support should be enabled?  Even if
  `core.longpaths` was set to true in a system configuration file, the
  repository itself may set `core.longpaths` to false in _its_ configuration
  file, which you could only read if `core.longpaths` were set to true.
  
  Thus, `core.longpaths` must _only_ apply to working directory items,
  and cannot apply to the `.git` folder or its contents.
  

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