Special character "=" not allowed in file path but necessary for parquet data with partitions

What happens?

• parquet datasets partitions its data into subsets and stores each subset in key-value pair filenames with an "=", as in state="MA". However, dataverse does not appear to allow = as a subdirectory name. Moreover it will silently convert "=" in subdirectory paths into periods ".". So, when an unknowing user downloads the parquet file with the hierarchy, it will be a corrupt parquet file that cannot be read in (manually renaming the post-downloaded subdirectory names results in a readable file).

What steps does it take to reproduce the issue? / Which page(s) does it occurs on?

• See my dataverse https://demo.dataverse.org/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi%3A10.70122%2FFK2%2FDDNIMS
• See also my file pre-unzipping that I tried to upload, attached.
  mwe_parq.zip

When does this issue occur?

• When a parquet format with partitions is uploaded to dataverse.
• One way to avoid the issue entirely is to double-zip (https://github.com/IQSS/dataverse/issues/8029#issuecomment-1572986562) the parquet before uploading so the partitions do not unzip. An example appears in my dataverse. However, that is cumbersome to do manually and it also defeats some of the purpose of partitioning.

What did you expect to happen?

• Allow Dataverse to retain the "=" in a filepath, or at least throw a warning that it changed the filepath.

Which version of Dataverse are you using?

• Latest Harvard Dataverse and Demo Dataverse

Screenshots:

See one in
https://github.com/IQSS/dataverse/issues/9897#issuecomment-2401173085

Are you thinking about creating a pull request for this issue?
I cannot

The issue names no source file, test, or entry point. Start by reproducing the behavior with the linked demo dataset and mwe_parq.zip, then trace file-path handling during upload and download. Done means partition paths retain "=" or Dataverse clearly warns when changing them.