Overlong command line arguments on Windows WAS Could not execute: .../gcc.exe

[rubenmoor]

Maybe related to #466, however I don't run into the CreateProcess problem described there, anymore.

During stack build on Win7 I get the following error, no executable being created. This only happened after adding dependencies to the libraries

-- build-depends in cabal file
base64-bytestring
RSA
stm

I'll revisit once I identified the culprit.

    Linking .stack-work\dist\i386-windows\Cabal-1.22.4.0\build\core-server\core-server.exe ...
    ghc.exe: could not execute: C:\Users\metrix\AppData\Local\Programs\stack\i386-windows\ghc-7.10.2\lib/../mingw/bin/gcc.exe

--  While building package core-0.1.0.0 using:
      C:\\Users\\metrix\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\stack\\i386-windows\\ghc-7.10.2\\bin\\runhaskell.exe -package=Cabal-1.22.4.0 -clear-package-db -global-package-db -package-db=C:\Users\metrix\AppData\Roaming\stack\snapshots\i386-windows\nightly-2015-08-11\7.10.2\pkgdb\ C:\Users\metrix\AppData\Local\Temp\stack4776\Setup.hs --builddir=.stack-work\dist\i386-windows\Cabal-1.22.4.0\ build
    Process exited with code: ExitFailure 1

[joozek78]

Happened to me also, after upgrading stack. Now I'm trying to revert to 0.1.1.0 and can't find x64 version, strange...

[themoritz]

That's definitely related to the command length limitations discussed in #466.

I could get all the dependencies mentioned by @rubenmoor compiled and linked in a smaller project. However, adding them to our project which already has quite many dependencies results in the exact same error.

[snoyberg]

I've changed the title of this issue to reflect the core issue. As I can see it, there are four different places where this problem could be resolved:

1. In Windows itself (highly unlikely to happen)
2. In GHC, by figuring out a different way to pass arguments to the linker that doesn't trip the limit
3. In Cabal (the library), by not putting each library in its own directory, or other ways of artificially reducing the size of the arguments
4. In stack, by figuring out some way to make the paths shorter

I'd prefer (2) to be the approach taken, as it's the right one and most resilient, but I don't know how feasible it is.

[snoyberg]

GHC trac ticket opened: https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/10777#ticket

[themoritz]

Agree that (1) or (2) are preferable since reducing path or argument length is only a solution until you get a project with even more dependencies. At the beginning, moving our project to C:\ helped, but now we're stuck again.

For the time being though, I'd be happy with any hack...

[snoyberg]

@themoritz One thing you could try is applying this patch to the Cabal library:

https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/10777#comment:2

Then you can install that library globally and stack will use it.

[joozek78]

How should I install it? I tried cabal install, stack install and manually adding to $(stack path --snapshot-pkg-db)

[snoyberg]

The following should work:

stack exec --no-ghc-package-path -- cabal install --global

We have code in Stack.Setup for doing this, but it's not generalized (at least yet) for local directories.

[themoritz]

Is there another way to install the patched cabal version so that stack will use it? The above command does not work because of #813.

[snoyberg]

How about:

1. Run stack exec which ghc
2. Add the resulting directory to your PATH
3. Run cabal install --global

[themoritz]

Okay, I just tested the patched cabal version and still get the same error:

ghc.exe: could not execute: C:\Users\Moritz\AppData\Local\Programs\stack\i386-windows\ghc-7.10.2\lib/../mingw/bin/gcc.exe

For anyone who wants to try it, here is the patched cabal: https://github.com/themoritz/cabal/tree/rsp-files

As a side note: With stack 0.1.3.1 x86_64, I ran into the gcc.exe: error: CreateProcess: No such file or directory error, so I switched to the i386 version (I have a 64-bit Win 7).

[snoyberg]

I'm not terribly surprised by that. I do think this will need to be fixed in GHC itself, not Cabal.

[joozek78]

Any ideas how could I work around that? Dropping windows is not an option for me and I already reduced my dependencies to minimum and even shortened paths.
It looks like I'll have to switch back to cabal :(