When executing proguard-maven-plugin, "CreateProcess error=206, The filename or extension is too long" occurs

Question

We are developing our own Eclipse plugin jars used by our Eclipse-based application. We are currently using proguard-maven-plugin version 2.0.8 to obfuscate them. However, when running mvn install on some plugins, we are currently encountering the following error:

[INFO] ---------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD FAILURE
[INFO] ---------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 1:34.297s
[INFO] Finished at: Tue Apr 21 16:03:51 SGT 2015
[INFO] Final Memory: 88M/210M
[INFO] ---------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] Failed to execute goal com.github.wvengen:proguard-maven-plugin:2.0.8:proguard (default) on project com.x.y: Execution default of goal com.github.wvengen:proguard-maven-plugin:2.0.8:proguard failed: java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.7.0_55\jre\bin\java.exe": CreateProcess error=206, The filename or extension is too long -> [Help 1]

Has anyone ever encountered this? If so, how did you solve the problem?

Note that I have actually seen this question and other related questions before deciding to ask but the answer by Brad Mace is not applicable to my case as the "CreateProcess error=206, The filename or extension is too long" is generated by Proguard and not by Javadoc. Initially, I think (correct me if I'm wrong) that either 1 of the 7 options given by espinchi or a variation of them might work but I'm not sure which one. Just to let you know my constraints in determining the solution:

1. I'm not sure if all of the classpaths in this particular plugin are valid since this has been developed by someone else many, many years ago so I don't think I can still contact the developer. This makes me hesitant to reduce the classpaths for fear that it might actually do more harm than good.
2. I cannot use the switch to "use IntelliJ" option since this problem occurred on the Windows command line when doing mvn install and not in Eclipse IDE.
3. I think the other options are too tedious for me. I'm hoping there's a simpler solution.

For reference, below is the Proguard-related snippet from my pom file:

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>com.github.wvengen</groupId>
            <artifactId>proguard-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <phase>package</phase>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>proguard</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>
            <configuration>
                <maxMemory>1024m</maxMemory>
                <proguardInclude>${basedir}/proguard.conf</proguardInclude>
                <libs>
                    <lib>${java.home}/lib/rt.jar</lib>
                </libs>
                <exclusions>
                    <exclusion>
                        <groupId>com.company.package</groupId>
                    </exclusion>
                </exclusions>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

Answer 1

If you have a huge list of dependencies the list of -libraryjars the resulting command line to execute ProGaurd could become too long. On Windows the error message could look like CreateProcess error=206, The filename or extension is too long.

<putLibraryJarsInTempDir>true</putLibraryJarsInTempDir>

in plugin configuration makes the plugin copy all the library jars to a single temporary directory and pass that directory as the only -libraryjars argument to ProGuard. Build performance will be a bit worse, but the command line will be much shorter.

for detailed information about proguard maven plugin usage please refer their here