There’s a long history of filename lengths being a problem for operating systems like Windows. There was a time when you couldn’t have filenames longer than 8 characters plus a 3-character file extension. The best you could do was something like myresume.doc. This was a restriction in place by the design of the file system.
Things got better as new versions of Windows came out. We went from an old, limited, file system to something called the New Technology File System (NTFS). NTFS took us to a point where a filename could be 255 characters long, and the file path length could potentially go up to 32,767 characters. So how can we possibly have filenames that are too long?
Windows has things known as system variables. These are variables that Windows relies upon to function, because Windows will always know what the variables mean and where they are, even when we’re moving bits and bytes all over the place. The system variable MAX_PATH is the one that restricts filenames and file paths to under 260 characters.
Being a variable, you’d think we could change it. No, we should not. It would be like pulling a thread out of a sweater. As soon as one system variable changes, other system variables and components dependent on them start to unravel.
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