X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
From: Robert North <btd6wi702 AT sneakemail DOT com>
Subject:  Starting some notes on large paths... what's the right place?(Re:  large paths in cygwin.)
Date:  Tue, 10 Jul 2007 23:24:58 +0100
Lines: 44
Message-ID: <f710v5$n33$1@sea.gmane.org>
References:  <f65u0f$k99$1 AT sea DOT gmane DOT org> <4686950F DOT E3D9ED56 AT dessent DOT net>
Mime-Version:  1.0
Content-Type:  text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding:  7bit
User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.12 (Windows/20070509)
In-Reply-To: <4686950F.E3D9ED56@dessent.net>
X-IsSubscribed: yes
Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm
Precedence: bulk
List-Id: <cygwin.cygwin.com>
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:cygwin-unsubscribe-archive-cygwin=delorie DOT com AT cygwin DOT com>
List-Subscribe: <mailto:cygwin-subscribe AT cygwin DOT com>
List-Archive: <http://sourceware.org/ml/cygwin/>
List-Post: <mailto:cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
List-Help: <mailto:cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com>, <http://sourceware.org/ml/#faqs>
Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com
Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin AT cygwin DOT com

Brian Dessent wrote:
> btd6wi702 AT sneakemail DOT com wrote:
> 
>> When will Cygwin get the ability to use large paths?
>>
>> What are the roadblocks to Cygwin getting this feature?
> 
> The small limit comes from the ANSI version of the Win32 API.  In order
> to be free of the limit Cygwin would have to consistently use the
> unicode versions of all Win32 API calls.  And to do that right[*] means
> converting Cygwin to store all paths as UCS-2 internally rather than
> simple char arrays, which means updating/fixing any code that handles
> paths, of which there is a lot (and some of it quite hairy.)
> 
>> I've been using rsync in Cygwin, and hit the limits of windows ASCII
>> file names.
> 
> Yes, it sucks.
> 
>> I've seen some discussion about Cygwin getting 2^15 char long paths, but
>> it doesn't appear to be present in current release Cygwin, or on CVS.
> 
> It's a lot of work.
> 

Thanks for the reply Brian, I don't doubt it's a lot of work, but I'd 
like to make the work a little easier for whoever fixes this problem.

As I've investigated a little previous comments about large paths in 
cygwin, I'm going to do a little work on trying to summarize previous 
commentary on the subject, so as to make it easier for any developer 
approaching this problem to understand what they're taking on.

If I have time I may investigate what locations in code need to be 
changed, and technical details of possible internal UCS-2 (Or is that 
UTF16 ) implementations.


Ideally I'd like to place this kind of thing in a cygwin wiki,
but as Cygwin doesn't have one,  my preference is to place the notes in 
this mailing list, where they will be searchable.
Is this a good idea?
Is there a better place to put them?
--such as the developer's list?


--
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/