[PATCH] PR21482: long paths on Windows

[Aaron Ballman]

On Mon, Nov 10, 2014 at 4:01 PM, Robinson, Paul
<Paul_Robinson at playstation.sony.com> wrote:
> Support directory names longer than 248 characters on Windows.
>
> The normal Windows path limit is 260 characters; the limit for directory
> names is 248, to leave room for an 8.3 filename at the end.  Adding the
> '\\?\' prefix greatly expands these limits.  Intercept path names that
> we are about to pass to the Windows APIs and add the prefix if necessary.
>
> Also correct the comment about the state of the temporary directory used
> by the Support unittests.

I don't have strong opinions on the patch, but would like to point out
that we have to be very careful with the extended path namespace as it
means we may create files that the user cannot access through "usual"
means in Explorer. For instance, we can create files by accident that
cannot be deleted by the user without some arcane efforts.

~Aaron