Long paths when building with NuGet

Question

We are making a framework and sell the sources to the customer. Yesterday one of the customers reported that he cannot build the sources because of the too long paths. I found that the longest path we have in the sources is the path produced by NuGet, and it is: project\packages\EnterpriseLibrary.ExceptionHandling.Logging.5.0.505.0\lib\NET35\Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.ExceptionHandling.Logging.dll.

Together with the folder name where the customer placed the sources (it's not so long, about 90 chars), and strange VS behavior when it composes absolute paths with c:\blablabla... ..\..\..\something it exceeds limit of 260 chars and his VS is not able to compile the solution.

Anyhow I can solve this problem? I am not able to ask the customer to place the sources closer to the disk root - he has his own agreements on where to place the code inside his company. I could also rename this dll, but I do not want to loose NuGet support.

Answer 1

There is not much you can do. If your sources compile in a reasonable path (Lets say "D:\ExternalCode\yourcode") it's really up to your customer to handle this. What if a customer decides your code has to compile in a path that is already 240 characters before your solution? Will you shorten all your names?

What you need to do is provide a clean and easy manual how to build your code. Errors that stem from path length are to be addressed and you have to provide a solution. That solution may well be "shorten the path our code is deployed to". You cannot accomodate to the rules and regulations of every single other company out there.