Adding files to the GitHub repository
Last Updated: November 22, 2024
This document provides guidance for properly adding compatible files and folder names to the GitHub repositories.
Avoid using file and folder names incompatible with Windows and Mac Operating systems (OS) when adding to our GitHub repositories. It can be difficult because most of us use only one or the other, and some of us upload files and directories into repositories via the GitHub web interface rather than committing and pushing them from our desktops.
Please avoid the following:
File names containing question marks [ ? ]
File names containing back slashes [ \ ]
File names containing forward slashes [ / ]
File names containing less than sign [ < ]
File names containing greater than sign [ > ]
File names containing double quotes [ “ ]
File names containing asterisks [ * ]
File names containing colons [ : ]
File names containing pipe symbols [ | ]
File names ending with a period [ . ]
File names ending with a space
File names starting with a space
File paths longer than 256 characters, with a healthy margin for error since the limit on Windows includes the full path of each file starting with the drive letter, i.e., the path in the repository plus the path of the directory it's checked out into needs to be less than 256.
Ensuring users correctly add files and folders to GitHub is important to maintaining the functionality and efficacy of one of our most used and essential tools.
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