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IDProjectCategoryView StatusDate SubmittedLast Update
0015859CMakeCMakepublic2015-11-24 13:312016-06-10 14:31
ReporterHauke Krüger 
Assigned ToKitware Robot 
PrioritynormalSeveritycrashReproducibilityalways
StatusclosedResolutionmoved 
PlatformPCOSMicrosoft WindowsOS Version8.1
Product VersionCMake 3.4 
Target VersionFixed in Version 
Summary0015859: Problems with cmake in Windows related to maximum path length
DescriptionI use cmake to generate "nmake Makefiles" in Windows (Visual Studio
compiler). The project is rather large, hence, I tend to run into max
path limitation problems.
I have understood that I should not run into these problems since the
hashing of the paths is intended to cope with most of these problems.

I have then downloaded the latest version of the cmake source code and
found the reason for this problem:

Let us assume we have defined a project XX which defines two targets
1) "XX"
2) "XX_variant1_with_modification_a"

which, e.g., are shared libraries.

I use very long path names and run into the system maximum path
limitations. I understood that the maximum path length is 250 on Windows
and leads to the shortened version of the object paths in case the path
turns out to be too large. The shortening is based on the MD5 hashing
mechanism.

I found that the object filename shortening happens in file
"cmLocalGenerator.cxx". In that function, all object file lengths are
checked against the maximum path
length given. The function declaration is "bool
cmLocalGeneratorCheckObjectName(std::string& objName,
std::string::size_type dir_len, std::string::size_type max_total_len)",
the object file path is characterized by the "dir_len" and the
"objName", the path limitation is specified by "max_total_len".

In the path length comparison, the "dir_len" value comes from an
evaluation of the variable "dir_max" which originates from
a function called void
"cmLocalUnixMakefileGenerator3::ComputeObjectFilenames(std::map<cmSourceFile
const*, std::string>& mapping,cmGeneratorTarget const* gt)
in "cmLocalUnixMakefileGenerator3.cpp" (involving functions
"CreateSafeUniqueObjectFileName" and "GetObjectFileNameWithoutTarget").

As far as I understood, the variable "dir_max" and with it value of
"dir_len" are incorrect: Coming back to our situation with the two
targets which
are derived from the project name, cmake generates object files in
subfolders of "<path-to-XX>/CMakeFiles/XX.dir" and
"<path-to-XX>/CMakeFiles/XX_variant1_with_modification_a.dir". In the
function "cmLocalGeneratorCheckObjectName",
however, the variable "dir_len" is related to a value of "dir_max" which
corresponds to the "<path-to-XX>/CMakeFiles/XX.dir".
This is not the maximum directory length as would be expected: In my
opinion, the value of "dir_max" should be
"<path-to-XX>/CMakeFiles/XX_variant1_with_modification_a.dir"!

If an object filename meets the constraints given the directory
"<path-to-XX>/CMakeFiles/XX.dir" to not cause the filename shortening,
it may happen that the path is too long for the directory
"<path-to-XX>/CMakeFiles/XX_variant1_with_modification_a.dir".
In the current implementation, the hashing/shortening mechanism is not
triggered, the resulting object file name path is longer than 250 and
I see a hard-to-understand build error.

The conclusion: the variable "dir_max" does not really contain the
maximum length directory name given all targets but only the directory
name of the first target or the project name - i did not follow this in
detail. My solution to overcome this problem currently: I set the
CMAKE_OBJECT_PATH_MAX value to a value lower than 250, e.g.,

set(CMAKE_OBJECT_PATH_MAX 240)

in order to take into account that the maximum target path directory
length is by maximum 10 larger than the project directory path.
Steps To Reproduce-> description
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  Notes
(0039912)
Bartosz (reporter)
2015-11-26 04:52

 Could you please create new/small Cmake project, in which you could reproduce this WIndows too long path issue?

It will be much easier to provide solution for that "too long path" issue.
(0040003)
Hauke Krüger (reporter)
2015-12-20 05:49

 Hi Bartosz,

I found the time to deal with this issue today. Unfortunately, the described problem seems to be related only to really complex build structures like multiple subprojects, folders, file cross references etc since cmake introduces various shortcuts when generating subfolders if possible.

I tried to create a simple example for reproduction and failed - nevertheless I see the problem in our main development project. I fear I can not provide this project here.

I tracked the reason for the failure within the cmake source code up to a certain point in my original bug report. Also, I provided a workaround how to overcome the issue. If you want to close this issue due to lack of reproduction examples, that would be ok for me - this post is in the archive anyway, isnt it? Then, the next person encountering this problem may find the description of the workaround and may be able to help to provide a trackable example.
(0042891)
Kitware Robot (administrator)
2016-06-10 14:29

 Resolving issue as `moved`.

This issue tracker is no longer used. Further discussion of this issue may take place in the current CMake Issues page linked in the banner at the top of this page.

 Issue History
Date Modified Username Field Change
2015-11-24 13:31 Hauke Krüger New Issue
2015-11-26 04:52 Bartosz Note Added: 0039912
2015-12-20 05:49 Hauke Krüger Note Added: 0040003
2016-06-10 14:29 Kitware Robot Note Added: 0042891
2016-06-10 14:29 Kitware Robot Status new => resolved
2016-06-10 14:29 Kitware Robot Resolution open => moved
2016-06-10 14:29 Kitware Robot Assigned To => Kitware Robot
2016-06-10 14:31 Kitware Robot Status resolved => closed

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