Active* filenames is too long for windows usage...

First you have to custom-build ruby 1.9.1 using Visual Studio 8.

Then using that copy, install it to a directory like:
c:\checkouts\external\ruby

Then run "gem.cmd update --system" to get the latest copy of rubygems.

Then run "gem.cmd install rails"

I'll cut-and-paste the exact error messages tomorrow for win32 and win64 (they are on my work computer).

==win64 Here is an example to get an error in win64. Note: ruby handles this fine in win64, this is an external tool.

Using cygwin's find:
$ find . > /dev/null $ find: ./lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/doc/activerecord-2.3.4/ri/ActiveRecord/HasManyThroughCantAssociateThroughHasOneOrManyReflection/cdesc-HasManyThroughCantAssociateThroughHasOneOrManyReflection.yaml': File name too long

==win32

Whoops, I'm wrong about the filename for this one...this is from activesupport:
** Installing gem rails -v=2.3.4... ERROR: While executing gem ... (Errno::ENOENT)

No such file or directory - ./I18nSimpleBackendInterpolateTest/test_interpolate_given_a_non_unicode_multibyte_value_hash_interpolates_into_a_string_with_the_same_encoding-i.yaml

Successfully installed rake-0.8.7
Successfully installed activesupport-2.3.4
Successfully installed activerecord-2.3.4
Successfully installed rack-1.0.1
Successfully installed actionpack-2.3.4
Successfully installed actionmailer-2.3.4
Successfully installed activeresource-2.3.4
Successfully installed rails-2.3.4
8 gems installed

It returns a non-zero exit code when that is done and it doesn't install the docs, so the file above isn't shown as an issue (though I bet it is, I'll see if I can confirm it).

Try 2 -- Sorry, not used to bug systems that have formatting.

win64

Here is an example to get an error in win64. Note: ruby handles this fine in win64, this is an external tool.

Using cygwin's find:

$ find . > /dev/null $ find: ./lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/doc/activerecord-2.3.4/ri/ActiveRecord/HasManyThroughCantAssociateThroughHasOneOrManyReflection/cdesc-HasManyThroughCantAssociateThroughHasOneOrManyReflection.yaml': File name too long

win32

Whoops, I'm wrong about the filename for this one...this is from activesupport:

** Installing gem rails -v=2.3.4... ERROR: While executing gem ... (Errno::ENOENT)
No such file or directory - ./I18nSimpleBackendInterpolateTest/test_interpolate_given_a_non_unicode_multibyte_value_hash_interpolates_into_a_string_with_the_same_encoding-i.yaml
Successfully installed rake-0.8.7
Successfully installed activesupport-2.3.4
Successfully installed activerecord-2.3.4
Successfully installed rack-1.0.1
Successfully installed actionpack-2.3.4
Successfully installed actionmailer-2.3.4
Successfully installed activeresource-2.3.4
Successfully installed rails-2.3.4
8 gems installed

It returns a non-zero exit code when that is done and it doesn't install the docs, so the file above isn't shown as an issue (though I bet it is, I'll see if I can confirm it).

Okay, trying to create the full path via Explorer:

Directory:
e:\checkouts\holtje\externals\rubygems\dists\1.9.1-v1\windows-i386\lib\ruby\gems\1.9.1\doc\activesupport-2.3.4\ri\I18nSimpleBackendInterpolateTest
Filename:
test_interpolate_given_a_non_unicode_multibyte_value_hash_interpolates_into_a_string_with_the_same_encoding-i.yaml

I went into the directory with cygwin, and did a touch 't'. I then used explorer to try to rename the file.
It claimed it did it, but it chopped off the last two characters 'ml'.

I'm going to try moving everything up a couple directories. :-/

I can confirm that I can work around the win32 problem by changing the directory path to something shorter.

I'll check the win64 problem shortly.

This isn't a perfect fix for me, since I plan on shipping my pre-built ruby along with a rails application to customers... I would like it if it was less likely to have problems if they choose a long-ish path to install the product in.

And it would still be good, for windows users and anyone who ever does a 'find', to shorten these insanely long paths.

So I still get these errors from other utilities, when running find, even though I've shortened the overall path significantly:

find: ./lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/doc/activesupport-2.3.4/ri/I18nSimpleBackendInterpolateTest/test_interpolate_given_an_unicode_value_hash_into_a_non_unicode_multibyte_string_raises_encoding_compatibility_error-i.yaml': File name too long<br/> find:./lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/doc/activesupport-2.3.4/ri/I18nSimpleBackendInterpolateTest/test_interpolate_given_a_non_unicode_multibyte_value_hash_into_an_unicode_string_raises_encoding_compatibility_error-i.yaml': File name too long

I would still suggest shortening these paths, if it all possible.