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Re: [PATCH 1/2] symlinks: remove PATH_MAX limitation

From
Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Date
Jul 5, 2014, 02:52 UTC
Message-ID
<alpine.DEB.1.00.1407050449220.14982@s15462909.onlinehome-server.info>
In-Reply-To
<53B72DAA.5050007@gmail.com>
Hi,
On Sat, 5 Jul 2014, Karsten Blees wrote:
Show 12 quoted lines
> 'git checkout' fails if a directory is longer than PATH_MAX, because the
> lstat_cache in symlinks.c checks if the leading directory exists using
> PATH_MAX-bounded string operations.
> 
> Remove the limitation by using strbuf instead.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
> ---
> 
> This fixes a bug on Windows with long paths [1].
> 
> [1] https://github.com/msysgit/msysgit/issues/227

For context: on Windows, PATH_MAX is ridiculously small. And it really is that small, file functions of the Win32 API cannot handle longer paths.

However, there is a (pretty ugly, if you ask me) workaround: prefixing the paths with "\\?\" and lo and behold, *many* (but not all) Win32 API functions can then handle paths up to something around 32,000 characters!

The problem Karsten addressed here is caused exactly by this oddity: we *can* handle paths much longer than PATH_MAX. Therefore, we need to decouple the path buffers from that hardcoded limitation.

Karsten, you rock.

Ciao, Dscho

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Previous: Junio C HamanoNext: Junio C Hamano
Message 12 of 16 in “symlinks: remove PATH_MAX limitation”
  1. 1/2 symlinks: remove PATH_MAX limitationKarsten Blees, Jul 4, 2014
  2. 2/2 dir: remove PATH_MAX limitationKarsten Blees, Jul 4, 2014
  3. Duy NguyenJul 5, 2014
  4. Karsten BleesJul 11, 2014
  5. Jeff KingJul 9, 2014
  6. Junio C HamanoJul 9, 2014
  7. Karsten BleesJul 11, 2014
  8. Junio C HamanoJul 11, 2014
  9. Karsten BleesJul 11, 2014
  10. Duy NguyenJul 12, 2014
  11. Junio C HamanoJul 14, 2014
  12. Johannes SchindelinJul 5, 2014
  13. Junio C HamanoJul 7, 2014
  14. Karsten BleesJul 11, 2014
  15. Junio C HamanoJul 11, 2014
  16. fixup! symlinks: remove PATH_MAX limitationKarsten Blees, Jul 11, 2014

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