Path too long error when building a windows azure service

Question

I have been trying to publish my service to windows azure. The service consists of a single webRole, however I have added remote login functionality published it and built it a few times, and now all the sudden it will not build. The reason it gives is that

Details below:
"Error 56 The specified path, file name, or both are too long. The fully qualified file name must be less than 260 characters, and the directory name must be less than 248 characters. C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\Cloud Service\1.0\Visual Studio 10.0\Microsoft.CloudService.targets 202 5 FileSystemCreator"

I have gone on all the forums, I have used CSPack command line for packaging the service which is fine but I'm having a really hard time configuring the certificate for remote desktop connect and I would like to take advantage of this feature as I am creating some websites in the onStart event and I would like to peek into IIS. Some microsoft employees do agree that this is a bug and the have promised a fix this issue, refer to post . I am using VS2010 and I do not know how to fix this bug.

Can anyone please help, or point me to a place where I can get any help.

Answer 1

I ran into the same problem with a new solution.

Note that, unlike Eugenio Pace's response suggests, the error occurs only when deploying to Azure (and not when running the project in the Azure Compute Emulator).

Try adding the following line to the first property group of your Windows Azure Visual Studio Project file (*.ccproj):

<ServiceOutputDirectory>C:\Azure\</ServiceOutputDirectory> 

The trailing slash (for whatever path you select) appears to be required. This folder will be deleted each time you create a package if it exists.

This setting seems to redirect the working folder for the package to a shorter base path, preventing the path too long error.

Credit goes to: http://govada.blogspot.com/2011/12/windows-azure-package-build-error.html

Answer 2

Perhaps the local folder used to store temporary development fabric is too long. See Windows Azure - Resolving "The Path is too long after being fully qualified" Error Message.