Windows Long Path Support

Support for long paths (paths that exceed 260 characters) on Windows is limited. Errors may be encountered in a variety of tools such as CMake when building a project or even Git when cloning a new repository.

Enable Long Paths

Long paths may be enabled in Windows using the following guide. For more information, please consult the official Microsoft documentation.

However, this setting may not fix all scenarios that may be encountered in the MCUXpresso for VS Code workflow.

Known limitations

ARM GCC

ARM GCC does not support long paths on Windows. In order to successfully build a project, it may be necessary to limit the project’s folder structure to a shorter length. The build system usually generates directories with long names, so it would be advisable to keep the base project path as short as possible.

Typical error messages the user may encounter when the path exceeds the Windows limit:

  • arm-none-eabi-gcc.exe: fatal error: cannot execute 'cc1': CreateProcess: No such file or directory

  • arm-none-eabi-gcc.exe: error: <path>: No such file or directory

  • fatal error: <header.h>: No such file or directory (although the header file exists on disk)

  • cannot open linker script file <path>: No such file or directory

Ninja

Ninja may also fail to build a project when intermediate build artifacts (object files, dependency files) end up under a path longer than 260 characters. In this case Ninja typically reports one of the following:

  • ninja: error: FindFirstFileExA(<path>): The system cannot find the path specified.

  • ninja: error: mkdir(<path>): The system cannot find the path specified.

  • ninja: build stopped: subcommand failed.

If any of the above are reported, shorten the workspace path (for example, place your project close to the drive root, such as C:\ws\<project>) and rebuild.

Git clone

Git clone may abort with messages such as:

  • error: unable to create file <path>: Filename too long

  • fatal: cannot create directory at '<path>': Filename too long

Enabling long paths in Git (git config --global core.longpaths true) together with the Windows registry setting is recommended.

RT700

For RT700, some SDK examples ship with long internal folder structures. When cloned or generated on Windows without the long path setting enabled, they can trigger build failures even if the workspace itself is short. It is strongly recommended to:

  • Enable Windows long path support (see above).

  • Enable Git long path support (git config --global core.longpaths true).

  • Keep the workspace root as short as possible (for example, C:\ws\).