updating TeXLive packages exceeds Windows path length limit

updating TeXLive packages exceeds Windows path length limit

[Markus Hoenicka]

Hi,

I've just downloaded the latest setup-x86.exe to update my Cygwin 
installation on a Windows XP box. While setup downloads the required 
packages, it stops with a message saying:

Can't open 
\\servername\path\to\Downloads\[url_of_mirror]\path\to\texlive-collection-documentation-base-20130529-1.tar.bz2.tmp for writing: No such file or directory

Problem is, if I try to create a file with the same name manually in 
Windows Explorer, I apparently hit the maximum allowed path length just 
after the 't' in 'tmp'. In other words, the package filename is exactly 
two characters too long on my system and using my closest mirror. Setup 
exits without updating the system.

Is there a way to fix this? I know that I can try and find a mirror with 
a shorter URL, but I expect others to bump into the same problem sooner 
or later.

regards,
Markus


-- 
Markus Hoenicka
http://www.mhoenicka.de
AQ score 38


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Re: updating TeXLive packages exceeds Windows path length limit

[Corinna Vinschen]

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On Nov 14 10:25, Markus Hoenicka wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I've just downloaded the latest setup-x86.exe to update my Cygwin
> installation on a Windows XP box. While setup downloads the required
> packages, it stops with a message saying:
> 
> Can't open \\servername\path\to\Downloads\[url_of_mirror]\path\to\texlive-collection-documentation-base-20130529-1.tar.bz2.tmp
> for writing: No such file or directory
> 
> Problem is, if I try to create a file with the same name manually in
> Windows Explorer, I apparently hit the maximum allowed path length
> just after the 't' in 'tmp'. In other words, the package filename is
> exactly two characters too long on my system and using my closest
> mirror. Setup exits without updating the system.
> 
> Is there a way to fix this? I know that I can try and find a mirror
> with a shorter URL, but I expect others to bump into the same
> problem sooner or later.

You could create a symlink in \\servername\path pointing to
\\servername\path\to\Downloads\[url_of_mirror] to workaround this
I guess.

The only other way to fix this is to fix setup.  A long time ago I
tweaked setup to get rid of the MAX_PATH path length restriction, but
apparently this only worked for the files to install, not for the
archive files.  I'm just looking through the setup code for downloading
files, and it still calls the OS ANSI file API exclusively, rather then
the UNICODE API, which is the culprit for this problem.

Sigh.  This is a lot of work still to do.


Corinna

-- 
Corinna Vinschen                  Please, send mails regarding Cygwin to
Cygwin Maintainer                 cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Red Hat

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Re: updating TeXLive packages exceeds Windows path length limit

[Markus Hoenicka]

Am 2013-11-14 11:06, schrieb Corinna Vinschen:
> On Nov 14 10:25, Markus Hoenicka wrote:
>> Hi,
>> 
>> I've just downloaded the latest setup-x86.exe to update my Cygwin
>> installation on a Windows XP box. While setup downloads the required
>> packages, it stops with a message saying:
>> 
>> Can't open 
>> \\servername\path\to\Downloads\[url_of_mirror]\path\to\texlive-collection-documentation-base-20130529-1.tar.bz2.tmp
>> for writing: No such file or directory
>> 
>> Problem is, if I try to create a file with the same name manually in
>> Windows Explorer, I apparently hit the maximum allowed path length
>> just after the 't' in 'tmp'. In other words, the package filename is
>> exactly two characters too long on my system and using my closest
>> mirror. Setup exits without updating the system.
>> 
>> Is there a way to fix this? I know that I can try and find a mirror
>> with a shorter URL, but I expect others to bump into the same
>> problem sooner or later.
> 
> You could create a symlink in \\servername\path pointing to
> \\servername\path\to\Downloads\[url_of_mirror] to workaround this
> I guess.
> 
> The only other way to fix this is to fix setup.  A long time ago I
> tweaked setup to get rid of the MAX_PATH path length restriction, but
> apparently this only worked for the files to install, not for the
> archive files.  I'm just looking through the setup code for downloading
> files, and it still calls the OS ANSI file API exclusively, rather then
> the UNICODE API, which is the culprit for this problem.
> 
> Sigh.  This is a lot of work still to do.
> 
> 
> Corinna

Just to close this issue gracefully: I received a patched setup from 
Corinna off-list which no longer caused this problem. The problem may 
thus be fixed in the next setup version.

regards,
Markus


-- 
Markus Hoenicka
http://www.mhoenicka.de
AQ score 38


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Re: updating TeXLive packages exceeds Windows path length limit

[Christopher Faylor]

On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 11:06:54AM +0100, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
>On Nov 14 10:25, Markus Hoenicka wrote:
>> Hi,
>> 
>> I've just downloaded the latest setup-x86.exe to update my Cygwin
>> installation on a Windows XP box. While setup downloads the required
>> packages, it stops with a message saying:
>> 
>> Can't open \\servername\path\to\Downloads\[url_of_mirror]\path\to\texlive-collection-documentation-base-20130529-1.tar.bz2.tmp
>> for writing: No such file or directory
>> 
>> Problem is, if I try to create a file with the same name manually in
>> Windows Explorer, I apparently hit the maximum allowed path length
>> just after the 't' in 'tmp'. In other words, the package filename is
>> exactly two characters too long on my system and using my closest
>> mirror. Setup exits without updating the system.
>> 
>> Is there a way to fix this? I know that I can try and find a mirror
>> with a shorter URL, but I expect others to bump into the same
>> problem sooner or later.
>
>You could create a symlink in \\servername\path pointing to
>\\servername\path\to\Downloads\[url_of_mirror] to workaround this
>I guess.
>
>The only other way to fix this is to fix setup.  A long time ago I
>tweaked setup to get rid of the MAX_PATH path length restriction, but
>apparently this only worked for the files to install, not for the
>archive files.  I'm just looking through the setup code for downloading
>files, and it still calls the OS ANSI file API exclusively, rather then
>the UNICODE API, which is the culprit for this problem.
>
>Sigh.  This is a lot of work still to do.

I started down the path of removing the #(&# encoded mirror path names
in the download directory a while ago.  I will try to get that rolled
out again.  That won't solve the problem but it should help a bit.

In the meantime, I'd suggest at least renaming the [url_of_mirror] to
something like "A".  I think that should still work with setup.

cgf

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