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?

Robb

Where do you read that that version should fix the long filenames? – Panlogism

Here is the pull request for the patch: github.com/msysgit/git/pull/122 – Robb

@v.karbovnichy please read my question carefully. I already ran the command in the top voted answer. But at the time I asked the question, the accepted answer was correct: msys still had this character-limitation. Now that limitation is gone and git config core.longpaths true works like it should. – Robb

Ok, I agree then – Vey

Nowadays there is Linux in Windows in form of WSL2. No restrictions added. – Duroc

Why would you want to include the content of node_modules in a repo? – Twoway

Answer 1

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://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/maximum-file-path-limitation?tabs=cmd#enable-long-paths-in-windows-10-version-1607-and-later 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)

Panlogism

As I understand this incorporated pull request (github.com/msysgit/git/pull/122) it should be fixed now. – Robb

Well yes and no. Read the part in config.txt here: github.com/msysgit/git/pull/122/files My advice, don't enable this. Your problem with git status could be one of the "few quirks" warned about. – Panlogism

The limitation to 260 chars in a path is not specific to MSYS, it's a general Windows API imitation. This can be worked around by using Unicode paths, but that has other drawbacks, which is why core.longpaths is not enabled by default. Also note that Git for Windows it not compiled against MSYS. Instead, it's a native Windows application that comes with a stripped-down MSYS environment. – Direct

@sschuberth: Are there any drawbacks other than lack of compatibility with programs that do not support long paths? – Genoa

@Genoa Another drawback is that long paths always have to be absolute; relative paths are not supported. For further details please see here. – Direct

Or as a quick fix, just try checkout your repo to C:/ on windows thus reducing number of folder path characters. – Fayina

As of Windows 10, you can edit your registry (or apply a group policy) to remove the Windows API filename length restriction. howtogeek.com/266621/… – Sturdy

Thank you really much! changing register and git config finally worked! – Cistaceous

this doesn't work for me, it keeps saying "error: could not lock config file C:/Program Files/Git/mingw64/etc/gitconfig: Permission denied" – Debt

@Debt I think you need to run it as administrator – Franny

@Panlogism Thanks a lot for this NOTE: use this with cmd (Run as Admin) to avoid other errors – Barbi

locally '--system' threw a permissions issue (error: could not lock config file C:/Program Files/Git/mingw64/etc/gitconfig: Permission denied) so running without '--system' parameter had the desired effect, thanks :) – Ptolemaeus

Note that if you do not have full admin on your machine you can not edit the global gitconfig with git config --system core.longpaths true so instead edit your personal .gitconfig and add in [core] longpaths = true (Can't get this to format???) – Lakesha

This worked for me git config --system core.longpaths true But remember to open your terminal as administrator, othercase you will receive a Permission denied error message – Heavily

What if it happens in Linux? Funny as the same works on Windows out of the box. – Apostrophize

@ sschuberth Did you mean UNC paths? Unicode paths is slightly a different thing. With the UNC paths (ex: \\?\c:\path-longer-than-260) it does work in Windows 7. – Darcie

Solved for me, but I used --global instead of --system to avoid the need for admin priviliges. – Schreib

Don't forget to run powershell as admin – Arm

@Sturdy Do I still need to run the git config command when I change the registry? And/or vice versa? That's what I don't get. I've changed the registry, but I'm still getting the error. So I'm assuming I need to do both? Cheers – Elmaleh

This command git config --system core.longpaths true worked perfectly. For running this command need to open git cmd as an administration access and run in Windows 10. Thanks for help @Panlogism – Shrike

In case someone had a similar situation like me - I was using github desktop when I ran across this (or something like this anyway). Using the command 'git config --system core.longpaths true' resulted in getting a different error. The "trick" was to use a console, not gui. Hope this helps someone – Henri

git config core.longpaths true worked for me :) – Nearly

I came from LF will be replaced by CRLF issue, commit worked after git config core.autocrlf false and git config --system core.longpaths true commands. – Sapotaceous

Answer 2

You should be able to run the command

git config --system core.longpaths true

from an Administrator command prompt.

Or add it to one of your Git configuration files manually to turn this functionality on, once you are on a supported version of Git. It looks like maybe 1.9.0 and after.

Treasonable

This config option fixed the issue for me, even with msys as mentioned in the accepted answer. (Specifically, version 1.9.4.msysgit.2). – Askari

Sourcetree acts a bit weird unless you "also make sure that SourceTree is using the System’s Git and not the embedded one." - Thanks to Matej Drolc for that advice – Bautista

Here is some background information why this is not enabled by default, and some technical details. – Direct

@mcsullivan-dander: in my question, I mentioned that I already did core.longpath true. At that time, it did not run out of the box. So I think the accepted answer is right for the context. – Robb

get "could not lock config file C:\Program Files\Git\mingw64/etc/gitconfig" after running command above. But @Yash answer worked for me – Hydrostatics

@Hydrostatics running git bash as administrator prevents that error. – Mertz

this worked for me in windows: run git bash as admin, git config --system core.longpaths true, git clone yourrepo.git – Salchunas

I would use git config --global core.longpaths=true to enable survival after a git update. – Boatel

Windows 10 update 1607 and later now support a registry key which will remove the MAX_PATH limit across the entire system. The registry key is HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem\LongPathsEnabled and it should be a DWORD set to 1. – Captainship

this doesn't work for me, it keeps saying "error: could not lock config file C:/Program Files/Git/mingw64/etc/gitconfig: Permission denied" – Debt

I only was able to do so after I installed Git for Windows. Any other Registry modifications did not help – Infect

I started the prompt command as Administrator and the command was successfully executed. – Cacophony

Regarding problems with SourceTree, see: #996979 – Dayflower

could not lock config file c:/Program Files/Git/etc/gitconfig: permission denied – Alderman

immediately solved the issue – Seductive

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.

EDIT:

This is an important answer related to the "permission denied" issue for those whom does not granted to change git settings globally.

Angelenaangeleno

Folks here have noted that this setting can introduce some unpredictable behavior so it seems that it's preferable to use the above command as a local setting on projects where that require it rather than appending --system which will apply it to all projects – Koan

hey, that's just a copypasta of the other highly upvoted answer. might at the very least explain why you prefer removing the --system option.. – Prophase

I didn't have elevated rights and thus this was much easier to do inside the git repository than to ask the IT team to run the global command with elevated rights. Thanks Sagiruddin! – Schnabel

Thank you. I got permission denied and your answer solved my issue – Dzungaria

@GrantHumphries what "unpredictable behavior" are you referring to? I found the --global flag was what worked for me, and I want to know what to look out for. – Affer

Answer 4

Steps to follow (Windows):

1. Run Git Bash as administrator (right-clicking the app shortcut will show the option to Run as Administrator )
2. Run the following command:

git config --system core.longpaths true

Note: if step 2 does not work or gives any error, you can also try running this command:

git config --global core.longpaths true

Read more about git config here.

Amazing

Thanks for the answer! Using --global command solved the issue for me! – Luckily

Thanks a lot. The second command actually helped me out; Because it was throwing an error by saying "Permission denied". – Terwilliger

git config --global core.longpaths true , this command solved my issue. Thanks! – Elongate

Answer 5

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}\.

Inductive

You can also do this with the following command: git config --global core.longpaths true – Bunche

git config --global core.longpaths true worked for me thanks – Lineolate

Using Visual Studio the git bash solutions above did not work for me, but finding the .git/config file for the project and editing as shown above did. Thanks yash. – Petrochemical

this worked for me, i located that file and modified it manually – Debt

The above mentioned and verified answers are correct but with the permissions which is granted to the file, it might not be possible to update the file with those commands. This approach is really easy because this is the manual approach and it worked for me really well. You can easily find the .gitconfig file in the following path C:\Users\{username} and simply edit it. – Unwritten

this one is the convenient solution than using the command prompt that requires me permissions – Contrary

In my case, the config file already existed and I found it here: C:\Program Files\Git\etc\gitconfig. – Selachian

Answer 6

To be entirely sure that it takes effect immediately after the repository is initialized, but before the remote history is fetched or any files checked out, it is safer to use it this way:

git clone -c core.longpaths=true <repo-url>

-c key=value

Set a configuration variable in the newly-created repository; this takes effect immediately after the repository is initialized, but before the remote history is fetched or any files checked out. The key is in the same format as expected by git-config1 (e.g., core.eol=true). If multiple values are given for the same key, each value will be written to the config file. This makes it safe, for example, to add additional fetch refspecs to the origin remote.

More info

Brythonic

Answer 7

This worked for me

Run as terminal as administrator. And run the command below.

git config --system core.longpaths true

Horwath

Answer 8

The better solution is enable the longpath parameter from Git.

git config --system core.longpaths true

But a workaround that works is remove the node_modules folder from Git:

$ git rm -r --cached node_modules
$ vi .gitignore

Add node_modules in a new row inside the .gitignore file. After doing this, push your modifications:

$ git add .gitignore
$ git commit -m "node_modules removed"
$ git push

Dirt

There's a good reason to keep the node_modules folder checked into git: If you want your software to behave the same after a year of modules potentially vanishing from npm. – Biddle

@Biddle if some library has a vulnerabily and you don't update periodically, certainly you'll have security problems. – Dirt

Of course you have to upgrade your dependencies. But only when you want to, and if something were to break, you would want your backup in git... – Biddle

Is true. I'll edit my anwser. Thank you for you comment. – Dirt

No need to commit node_modules: the packages.lockfile is here to ensure the version installed by npm installwill always be the same, until you make a npm update – Andria

Answer 9

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

Metempsychosis

The global settings affect only the current user, whereas system settings affect all the users on the machine. If this is your workstation they're effectively the same as you may use only one user. – Rubicon

If you're command line application Ran as Administrator, first command would work! – Allometry

Answer 10

• Download & Install Git bash from here: https://git-scm.com/download/win
• Run the git bash gui as administrator and run this command: git config --system core.longpaths true
• Now clone any repository.
• If the problem is not fixed try this command: git config --global core.longpaths true
• If it does not help try restarting the windows.

Boll

Answer 11

You could also try to enable long file paths.

If you run Windows 10 Home Edition you could change your Registry to enable long paths.

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem in regedit and then set LongPathsEnabled to 1.

If you have Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise you could also use Local Group Policies.

Go to Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → System → Filesystem in gpedit.msc, open Enable Win32 long paths and set it to Enabled.

Terryl

I believe this must be done in combination with the git config, and it's worth noting it doesn't work with Windows Explorer for the reasons mentioned here. – Turbary

Win32 - I wonder if this can help if the application is 64bit? – Aforethought

Answer 12

git config --global core.longpaths true

The above command worked for me. Using '--system' gave me config file not locked error

Cuneate

for Github Desktop users, this is the only one that works because Github Desktop uses its own Git config. – Suannesuarez

Answer 13

TortoiseGit (Windows)

For anyone using TortoiseGit for Windows, I did this:

(1) Right-click on the folder containing your project. Select TortoiseGit -> Settings.

(2) On the "Git" tab, click the button to "Edit local .git/config".

(3) In the text file that pops up, under the [core] section, add: longpaths = true

Save and close everything, then re-try your commit. For me, this worked.

I hope this minimizes any possible system-wide issues, since we are not editing the global .gitconfig file, but rather just the one for this particular repository.

Bogusz

Answer 14

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.

Cocklebur

This is the only thing that solved my issue. It was that I had too many folders in the path. – Sat

Answer 15

In Windows, you can follow these steps which worked for me.

1. Open your cmd or git bash as an administrator

2. Give the following command either from cmd or git bash which you ran above as an administrator

git config --system core.longpaths true

3. This will allow accessing long paths globally

4. And now you can clone the repository with no issues with long paths

Abdomen

Answer 16

In a windows Machine

Run Command Prompt as administrator then run below command

git config --system core.longpaths true

Estevan

Answer 17

I had this error too, but in my case the cause was using an outdated version of npm, v1.4.28.

Updating to npm v3 followed by

rm -rf node_modules
npm -i

worked for me. npm issue 2697 has details of the "maximally flat" folder structure included in npm v3 (released 2015-06-25).

Flagpole

Answer 18

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.

Hebrews

Could you explain it in detail – Beers