util:RemoveFolderEx fails when folder Path/FileName is too long.

[mikehenselersimfront]

Error 2318: File does not exist:
When folder Path/FileName is too long.

My folder depth is 14 folders deep.
Path/FileName 273 characters long

when i move the offending folder/files to a folder closer to the root(thus creating a shorter path) then RemoveFolderEx works as expected.

also: RemoveFolderEx does not work when running from maintenance "REMOVE" uninstall, but does work when run from a full "UNINSTALL"(when not hitting error 2318)

Using Wix 3
Is this a known issue?
Is there a work around?

[barnson]

What's the actual log entry?

[mikehenselersimfront]

Action start 17:21:40: InstallValidate.
MSI (s) (30:14) [17:21:40:059]: Note: 1: 2205 2: 3: RemoveFilePath
MSI (s) (30:14) [17:21:40:878]: Note: 1: 2318 2: C:\Program Files\SimToolSuite\wringer-web\data\LDITProjectX\1.0.0-SNAPSHOT\features\LDITProjectX\Test Plans\ScaledUpTesting\3_VCCIs-SingleLayer_DynamicPositions\TEST_NoCore_DynamicComments\SingleLayer_DynamicPositions-[email protected]
DEBUG: Error 2318: File does not exist: C:\Program Files\SimToolSuite\wringer-web\data\LDITProjectX\1.0.0-SNAPSHOT\features\LDITProjectX\Test Plans\ScaledUpTesting\3_VCCIs-SingleLayer_DynamicPositions\TEST_NoCore_DynamicComments\SingleLayer_DynamicPositions[email protected]

[barnson]

That means it's not a problem in the custom action; it's somewhere in MSI.

[mikehenselersimfront]

Note:
These are runtime files, not installed or managed by MSI
After moving those offending group of files up one folder, then RemoveFolderEx works as expected.
thnks

[barnson]

Yeah, MSI probably can't handle >MAXPATH paths in general.

[mikehenselersimfront]

Possibly, since according to the RemoveFolderEx documentation, "The custom action that implements RemoveFolderEx does so by writing temporary rows to the RemoveFile table for each subfolder of the root folder you specify".
So RemoveFolderEx is working with MSI tables and not just a brute force delete type action.
I guess i will have to do my own brute force custom action to delete this folder.

thnks for your assistance.

[robmen]

Remember to handle rollback. That's why the custom action uses the Windows Installer to delete the files. It does the hard work of handling rollback.

[mikehenselersimfront]

Right, one of the reason i moved from NSIS to MSI.
more built in management.
thnks