Filename too long in Git for Windows

Question

I'm using Git-1.9.0-preview20140217 for Windows. As I know, this release should fix the issue with too long filenames. But not for me.

Surely I'm doing something wrong: I did git config core.longpaths true and git add . and then git commit. Everything went well. But when I now do a git status, I get a list of files with Filename too long, for example:

node_modules/grunt-contrib-imagemin/node_modules/pngquant-bin/node_modules/bin-wrapper/node_modules/download/node_modules/request/node_modules/form-data/node_modules/combined-stream/node_modules/delayed-stream/test/integration/test-handle-source-errors.js: Filename too long

It is quite simple to reproduce for me: just create a Yeoman web application with the Angular generator ("yo angular") and remove node_modules from the .gitignore file. Then repeat the aforementioned Git commands.

What am I missing here?

Answer 1

Move repository to root of your drive (temporary fix)

You can try to temporarily move the local repository (the entire folder) to the root of your drive or as close to the root as possible.

Since the path is smaller at the root of the drive, it sometimes fixes the issues.

On Windows, I'd move this to C:\ or another drive's root.

Answer 2

If you are working with your encrypted partition, consider moving the folder to an unencrypted partition, for example a /tmp, running git pull, and then moving back.

Answer 3

This might help:

git config core.longpaths true

Basic explanation: This answer suggests not to have such setting applied to the global system (to all projects so avoiding --system or --global tag) configurations. This command only solves the problem by being specific to the current project.

Answer 4

Executing git config --system core.longpaths true thrown an error to me:

"error: could not lock config file C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\mingw32/etc/gitconfig: Permission denied"

Fixed with executing the command at the global level:

git config --global core.longpaths true

Answer 5

Git has a limit of 4096 characters for a filename, except on Windows when Git is compiled with msys. It uses an older version of the Windows API and there's a limit of 260 characters for a filename.

So as far as I understand this, it's a limitation of msys and not of Git. You can read the details here: https://github.com/msysgit/git/pull/110

You can circumvent this by using another Git client on Windows or set core.longpaths to true as explained in other answers.

git config --system core.longpaths true

Git is build as a combination of scripts and compiled code. With the above change some of the scripts might fail. That's the reason for core.longpaths not to be enabled by default.

The windows documentation at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/fileio/naming-a-file has some more information:

Starting in Windows 10, version 1607, MAX_PATH limitations have been removed from common Win32 file and directory functions. However, you must opt-in to the new behavior.

A registry key allows you to enable or disable the new long path behavior. To enable long path behavior set the registry key at HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem LongPathsEnabled (Type: REG_DWORD)

Answer 6

Create .gitconfig and add

[core]
longpaths = true

You can create the file in a project location (not sure) and also in the global location. In my case the location is C:\Users\{name}\.