Why does the 260 character path length limit exist in Windows?

Question

I have come up against this problem a few times at inopportune moments:

• Trying to work on open source Java projects with deep paths
• Storing deep Fitne

Answer 1

One way to cope with the path limit is to shorten path entries with symbolic links.

For example:

1. create a C:\p directory to keep short links to long paths
2. mklink /J C:\p\foo C:\Some\Crazy\Long\Path\foo
3. add C:\p\foo to your path instead of the long path