[R-pkg-devel] Could the 100 byte path length limit be lifted?

[McGrath, Justin M]

We include other software in our source code. It has some long paths so a few of the files end up with paths longer than 100 bytes, and we need to manually rename them whenever we pull in updates.

The 100 byte path limit is from tar v7, and since POSIX1.1988, there has not been a path length limit. That standard is 35 years old now, so given that there is probably no one using an old version of tar that also wants to use the latest version of R, could the 100 byte limit be lifted? Incidentally, I am a big proponent of wide, long-term support, but it's hard to see that this change would negatively impact anyone.

Best wishes,
Justin