Filename too long in Git for Windows

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/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)

You should be able to run the command

git config --system core.longpaths true

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.

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.

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.