Windows long path experimenting report

[Paul Moore]

2008/6/20 Peter Arrenbrecht <peter.arrenbrecht at gmail.com>:
>> Hmm, rather than do this, I'd suggest allowing for up to MAX_PATH
>> (maybe MAX_PATH-3, see below) and leave it up to the user (with a
>> suitable warning, if Mercurial hits a problem) to locate the
>> repository appropriately. (MAX_PATH-3 ensures that putting the repo at
>> C:\ will always work).
>
> Would have to be MAX_PATH-len('C:\name-of-the repo\.hg\store'), no?
> What's particularly relevant here is the unknown
> len('name-of-the-repo'). So I'm not sure it is a good idea to approach
> MAX_PATH too closely.

There's all sorts of games you can play, if necessary, to shorten
absolute pathnames - use junctions (symbolic links) to point to a deep
directory from higher up in the filesystem, or use SUBST to point a
drive letter at a directory. The point here is that the directories
*above* the repo root are under the user's control - and the user can
address issues, up to the point (with subst) of putting the repository
at a "drive root". It's messy, certainly, but in my view, it's better
than stopping me creating a repository in C:\HG just because someone
else might want to put it in C:\some\very\long\directory\name\HG.

Basically, I'm against enforcing a limit other than MAX_PATH. We may
not be able to avoid limiting to MAX_PATH, but let's not make things
worse. That may mean that some repos can only be checked out into
suitably shallow locations in the filesystem, but that's OK with me.

Paul.