On Windows, what is the maximum file name length considered acceptable for an app to output? (Updated and clarified)

Question

Many Windows applications (e.g., almost all .NET apps) cannot open paths more than 260 characters in length. I am batch renaming a list of podcast files. I want to name each file after the title of the episode, but the titles are up to 100 characters long. This means that if a user saves the file in a deep directory with a very long path, they may hit the limit and be unable to open the file in those other applications.

Is it acceptable for my program to put out file names this long, and leave it to the user to deal with very long paths when it comes up? iTunes crops at 40 chars, but that seems very conservative.

Thanks to Ben Voigt for clarifying that this only applies to certain apps.

Answer 1

Windows does NOT have a limit of 255 characters for file paths.

CreateFileA has a limit of 260 characters. CreateFileW supports names up to about 32760 characters (64kB).

Some filesystems impose additional limits on the maximum directory nesting level, or the maximum length of each part.

You're probably thinking of certain popular Windows programs that have a 255 character limit, but accommodating those with a warning or user-configurable setting is probably more appropriate than adding your own hard limit.