Windows: Build fails with "Filename longer than 260 characters" on New Architecture

[ominexusx]

🐛 Bug Report: Windows Build Fails - Path Exceeds 260 Character Limit

Summary

Android builds fail on Windows with New Architecture (Fabric) enabled due to generated file paths exceeding Windows' 260 character MAX_PATH limit.

---

🔴 Error

> Task :app:buildCMakeDebug[arm64-v8a] FAILED

ninja: error: Stat(reactnativekeyboardcontroller_autolinked_build/CMakeFiles/react_codegen_reactnativekeyboardcontroller.dir/C_/Users/Admin/Projects/BeingnexusNative/node_modules/react-native-keyboard-controller/common/cpp/react/renderer/components/reactnativekeyboardcontroller/RNKCKeyboardBackgroundViewShadowNode.cpp.o): Filename longer than 260 characters

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📊 Path Analysis

Component	Length
reactnativekeyboardcontroller_autolinked_build/	48 chars
CMakeFiles/react_codegen_reactnativekeyboardcontroller.dir/	59 chars
C_/Users/Admin/Projects/BeingnexusNative/	42 chars
node_modules/react-native-keyboard-controller/	47 chars
common/cpp/react/renderer/components/reactnativekeyboardcontroller/	68 chars
RNKCKeyboardBackgroundViewShadowNode.cpp.o	43 chars
Total	~307 chars (exceeds 260 limit)

Root Cause

The namespace reactnativekeyboardcontroller (32 chars) appears 4 times in the path, contributing ~128 characters.

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🖥️ Environment

Item	Version
OS	Windows 11
React Native	0.77.x (New Architecture)
react-native-keyboard-controller	latest
Gradle	9.0.0
CMake	3.22.1
Architecture	arm64-v8a

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📝 Reproduction Steps

1. Create a new React Native project on Windows
2. Enable New Architecture in gradle.properties:

   newArchEnabled=true

3. Install the package:

   npm install react-native-keyboard-controller

4. Add KeyboardProvider to App.tsx:

   import { KeyboardProvider } from 'react-native-keyboard-controller';
   
   export default function App() {
     return (
       <KeyboardProvider>
         {/* ... */}
       </KeyboardProvider>
     );
   }

5. Build for Android:

   npx react-native run-android

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✅ Expected Behavior

Build should complete successfully on Windows.

❌ Actual Behavior

Build fails with Filename longer than 260 characters error.

---

💡 Suggested Fix

Option 1: Shorten Codegen Name (Recommended)

In package.json, use a shorter name for codegen:

{
  "codegenConfig": {
    "name": "rnkc",  // Instead of "reactnativekeyboardcontroller"
    ...
  }
}

Option 2: Shorten Internal Paths

Restructure cpp files:

Before: common/cpp/react/renderer/components/reactnativekeyboardcontroller/
After:  cpp/rnkc/

Option 3: Shorten File Names

Before: RNKCKeyboardBackgroundViewShadowNode.cpp
After:  KBBackgroundShadow.cpp

---

⚠️ Additional Warnings

The build also shows these deprecation warnings:

1. AndroidManifest package Attribute (Deprecated)

package="com.reactnativekeyboardcontroller" found in source AndroidManifest.xml.
Setting the namespace via the package attribute is no longer supported.
Recommendation: remove package attribute and use namespace in build.gradle.kts

2. Deprecated React Native APIs

• LayoutShadowNode → deprecated
• ReactShadowNodeImpl → deprecated
• MapBuilder → Use Kotlin's built-in collections
• UIManagerType.DEFAULT → Use LEGACY
• statusBarColor → deprecated in Android API
• FLAG_FULLSCREEN → deprecated
• ReactFeatureFlags → Use ReactNativeFeatureFlags

---

🔧 Temporary Workarounds (For Users)

1. Enable Long Paths in Windows (requires admin + reboot):

   New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem" -Name "LongPathsEnabled" -Value 1 -PropertyType DWORD -Force

2. Move project to shorter path:

   C:\app\  # Instead of C:\Users\Username\Projects\MyApp\
   

3. Use WSL2 for building instead of native Windows

---

📋 Full CMake Warning

CMake Warning in .../react-native-keyboard-controller/android/src/main/jni/CMakeLists.txt:
  The object file directory
    .../reactnativekeyboardcontroller_autolinked_build/CMakeFiles/react_codegen_reactnativekeyboardcontroller.dir/./
  has 191 characters.  The maximum full path to an object file is 250
  characters (see CMAKE_OBJECT_PATH_MAX).  Object file
    .../RNKCKeyboardControllerViewShadowNode.cpp.o
  cannot be safely placed under this directory.

---

🏷️ Labels

bug windows new-architecture fabric build-failure

[kirillzyusko]

@ominexusx this is the same problem as #1147

I don't have a windows laptop, so I can not reproduce this issue locally. The only one way for me to test it and assure this problem is not getting introduced again and again is adding workflow for building example app on windows.

I tried to make it here: #1248

But build is failing because of react-native-worklets:

C/C++: ninja: error: manifest 'build.ninja' still dirty after 100 tries
FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.
[Incubating] Problems report is available at: file:///D:/a/react-native-keyboard-controller/react-native-keyboard-controller/FabricExample/android/build/reports/problems/problems-report.html
* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':react-native-worklets:buildCMakeDebug[arm64-v8a][worklets]'.
> com.android.ide.common.process.ProcessException: ninja: Entering directory `D:\a\react-native-keyboard-controller\react-native-keyboard-controller\FabricExample\node_modules\react-native-worklets\android\.cxx\Debug\6v2421n1\arm64-v8a'
  [0/2] Re-checking globbed directories...
  [1/2] Re-running CMake...
  -- Configuring done
  -- Generating done
  -- Build files have been written to: D:/a/react-native-keyboard-controller/react-native-keyboard-controller/FabricExample/node_modules/react-native-worklets/android/.cxx/Debug/6v2421n1/arm64-v8a
  [0/2] Re-checking globbed directories...
  [1/2] Re-running CMake...
  -- Configuring done
  -- Generating done
  -- Build files have been written to: D:/a/react-native-keyboard-controller/react-native-keyboard-controller/FabricExample/node_modules/react-native-worklets/android/.cxx/Debug/6v2421n1/arm64-v8a

...

  C++ build system [build] failed while executing:
      @echo off
      "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Android\\android-sdk\\cmake\\3.22.1\\bin\\ninja.exe" ^
        -C ^
        "D:\\a\\react-native-keyboard-controller\\react-native-keyboard-controller\\FabricExample\\node_modules\\react-native-worklets\\android\\.cxx\\Debug\\6v2421n1\\arm64-v8a" ^
        worklets
    from D:\a\react-native-keyboard-controller\react-native-keyboard-controller\FabricExample\node_modules\react-native-worklets\android
  ninja: error: manifest 'build.ninja' still dirty after 100 tries

You can see a run here: https://github.com/kirillzyusko/react-native-keyboard-controller/actions/runs/20266121087/job/58189716296?pr=1248

Any ideas how to reproduce the issue you encounter on GitHub CI?

[kirillzyusko]

After been thinking a lot I decided to close this issue (without a fix) and let me explain why.

I'm using reactnativekeyboardcontroller folder name for c++. I can short it to keyboardcontroller, but it still will be longer than safeareacontext, so my lib will be first who caused a build error.

In your case reactnativekeyboardcontroller_autolinked_build/CMakeFiles/react_codegen_reactnativekeyboardcontroller.dir/C_/Users/Admin/Projects/BeingnexusNative/node_modules/react-native-keyboard-controller/common/cpp/react/renderer/components/reactnativekeyboardcontroller/RNKCKeyboardBackgroundViewShadowNode.cpp.o -> 302, keyboardcontroller_autolinked_build/CMakeFiles/react_codegen_keyboardcontroller.dir/C_/Users/Admin/Projects/BeingnexusNative/node_modules/react-native-keyboard-controller/common/cpp/react/renderer/components/keyboardcontroller/RNKCKeyboardBackgroundViewShadowNode.cpp.o -> 269 (still exceeds 260 limit)

In reality I found many similar issues:

• Filename longer than 260 characters Error on React Native Fabric AppAndFlow/react-native-safe-area-context#424
• Should support filename longer than 260 characters ninja-build/ninja#1900 (comment)
• 🔧 ninja: error: manifest 'build.ninja' still dirty after 100 tries  mrousavy/react-native-vision-camera#1941
• Android build fails on Windows due to CMake/Ninja long file paths inside react-native-screens (Filename longer than 260 characters) software-mansion/react-native-screens#3471
• https://docs.swmansion.com/react-native-reanimated/docs/guides/building-on-windows#-use-appropriate-version-of-ninja

And all of them recommend to use modern ninja version. I've also tried to add a job on CI to check if I can fix it, and on CI I get constant failures because of react-native-worklets, for example.

So the easies fix is just updating ninja. Hopefully in a new year RN will update this dependency and this issue will gone for all libraries 🤞