CODEWITHSUNDEEP
windowsbatch-filecommand-line
Violet Giraffe
Violet Giraffe

Reputation: 33607

"The input line is too long" error in a very basic script for no obvious reason

The following script

cmd /C ""set PATH=nasm\;%PATH%" & "echo %PATH%""

Only prints this:

The input line is too long.
The input line is too long.

Why? How can I fix this?

P. S. This works:

cmd /C "echo %PATH%"

And this doesn't:

cmd /C ""echo %PATH%""

Upvotes: 7

Views: 24471

Answers (4)

Tono Wiedermann
Tono Wiedermann

Reputation: 608

Had the same problem and it was actually mis-reported error in the executable name. Had this

"C:\Java\jdk1.8.0_151"\bin\java"

instead of this

"C:\Java\jdk1.8.0_151\bin\java"

Upvotes: 0

sage
sage

Reputation: 5514

The OP's problem differed slightly from mine, but I also had The input line is too long error in a very basic script for no obvious reason.

In my case, the reason that it was not obvious is that I had earlier corrupted my environment by recursively setting my Path until it exceeded the permissible size and then I had fixed the issue before attempting to diagnose the error.

Restarting the command prompt was sufficient in this case to get a fresh Path.

To test if you might have done something like this, just display your environment variables by running set with no arguments. In my case, it showed the recursively set Path (much longer than shown here, but you see the repeating parts):

C:\dev_build>set
...
Path=C:\qnx660\host\win32\x86\usr\bin;C:\qnx660\.qnx\bin;C:\qnx660\jre\bin;C:\qnx660\host\win32\x86\usr\bin;C:\qnx660\.qnx\bin;C:\qnx660\jre\bin;C:\qnx660\host\win32\x86\usr\bin;C:\qnx660\.qnx\bin;C:\qnx660\jre\bin;C:\qnx660\host\win32\x86\usr\bin;C:\qnx660\.qnx\bin;C:\qnx660\jre\bin;C:\qnx660\host\win32\x86\usr\bin;C:\qnx660\.qnx\bin;C:\qnx660\jre\bin;C:\qnx660\host\win32\x86\usr\bin;C:\qnx660\.qnx\bin;C:\qnx660\jre\bin;C:\qnx660\host\win32\x86\usr\bin;C:\qnx660\.qnx\bin;...
...

Any further attempts to do anything to Path gave me The input line is too long

Upvotes: 10

jeb
jeb

Reputation: 82337

With using two double quotes "", the cmd.exe expects a single command.
But a command has a limit of ~250 characters.

But you don't want a command named echo C:\windows\....
And your set path=... & echo %path% can't work, as the percent expansion is done before the line is executed.

This one should work 

cmd /v:on /C "set PATH=nasm\;%PATH% & echo ^!PATH^!"

But I can't see any reason why you don't use a code block, perhaps with setlocal

(
  setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
  "%VS120COMNTOOLS%..\..\VC\bin\vcvars32.bat"
  set "PATH=nasm\;%PATH%"
  echo !PATH!
  endlocal
)

If you really need to use cmd /c then it can also contains quotes, but not over multiple commands

cmd /v:on /C ""%VS120COMNTOOLS%..\..\VC\bin\vcvars32.bat" & set PATH=nasm\;%PATH% & echo ^!PATH^!"

Upvotes: 5

aphoria
aphoria

Reputation: 20199

You are hitting the 8,192 character command line length limit.

Upvotes: 0

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