Grails 4 run-app on WIndows 10 throws error = 206 filename or extension is too long, yet Grails 3 with the same app is fine. How to fix grails 4?

Question

Have converted a number of Grails 3 plugins to Grails 4. One of the Grails 4 plugins throws an error = 206 filename or extension is too long when invoking run-app. The command line and output follows. You can see that a pathing jar is in use for the run-app invocation, yet somewhere down the line the classpath is expanded and is causing this exception. Is there a cure for this on a Windows platform?

"C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_301\bin\java.exe" -XX:+TieredCompilation -XX:TieredStopAtLevel=1 -XX:CICompilerCount=3 -Djline.WindowsTerminal.directConsole=false -Dgrails.full.stacktrace=true -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -classpath C:\Users\jay\AppData\Local\Temp\classpath1957686578.jar org.grails.cli.GrailsCli run-app --stacktrace --plain-output
|Running application...

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':bootRun'.
> A problem occurred starting process 'command 'C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_301\bin\java.exe''

* Try:
Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output. Run with --scan to get full insights.

* Exception is:
org.gradle.api.tasks.TaskExecutionException: Execution failed for task ':bootRun'.
    at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.executeActions(ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.java:96)
    at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.execute(ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.java:65)
    at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ActionEventFiringTaskExecuter.execute(ActionEventFiringTaskExecuter.java:44)
    at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.TimeoutTaskExecuter.execute(TimeoutTaskExecuter.java:53)
    << more stacktrace omitted >>
Caused by: org.gradle.process.internal.ExecException: A problem occurred starting process 'command 'C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_301\bin\java.exe''
    at org.gradle.process.internal.DefaultExecHandle.execExceptionFor(DefaultExecHandle.java:232)
    at org.gradle.process.internal.DefaultExecHandle.setEndStateInfo(DefaultExecHandle.java:209)
    at org.gradle.process.internal.DefaultExecHandle.failed(DefaultExecHandle.java:356)
    at org.gradle.process.internal.ExecHandleRunner.run(ExecHandleRunner.java:86)
    at org.gradle.internal.operations.CurrentBuildOperationPreservingRunnable.run(CurrentBuildOperationPreservingRunnable.java:42)
    ... 3 more
Caused by: net.rubygrapefruit.platform.NativeException: Could not start 'C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_301\bin\java.exe'
    at net.rubygrapefruit.platform.internal.DefaultProcessLauncher.start(DefaultProcessLauncher.java:27)
    at net.rubygrapefruit.platform.internal.WindowsProcessLauncher.start(WindowsProcessLauncher.java:22)
    at net.rubygrapefruit.platform.internal.WrapperProcessLauncher.start(WrapperProcessLauncher.java:36)
    at org.gradle.process.internal.ExecHandleRunner.startProcess(ExecHandleRunner.java:97)
    at org.gradle.process.internal.ExecHandleRunner.run(ExecHandleRunner.java:70)
    ... 4 more
Caused by: java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_301\bin\java.exe" (in directory "C:\JtmdGrailsPlugin"): CreateProcess error=206, The filename or extension is too long
    at net.rubygrapefruit.platform.internal.DefaultProcessLauncher.start(DefaultProcessLauncher.java:25)
    ... 8 more
Caused by: java.io.IOException: CreateProcess error=206, The filename or extension is too long
    ... 9 more


* Get more help at https://help.gradle.org

BUILD FAILED in 3s
Error |
Failed to start server (NOTE: Stack trace has been filtered. Use --verbose to see entire trace.)
java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: org.gradle.tooling.BuildException: Could not execute build using Gradle distribution 'https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-5.0-bin.zip'.
    at java_util_concurrent_Future$get.call(Unknown Source)
    at run-app.run(run-app.groovy:89)
    at org.grails.cli.profile.commands.script.GroovyScriptCommand.handle(GroovyScriptCommand.groovy:152)
    at org.grails.cli.profile.AbstractProfile.handleCommand(AbstractProfile.groovy:482)
    at org.grails.cli.GrailsCli.handleCommand(GrailsCli.groovy:377)
    at org.grails.cli.GrailsCli.handleCommand(GrailsCli.groovy:350)
    at org.grails.cli.GrailsCli.execute(GrailsCli.groovy:271)
    at org.grails.cli.GrailsCli.main(GrailsCli.groovy:159)
Caused by: org.gradle.tooling.BuildException: Could not execute build using Gradle distribution 'https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-5.0-bin.zip'.
    at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.ExceptionTransformer.transform(ExceptionTransformer.java:51)
    at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.ExceptionTransformer.transform(ExceptionTransformer.java:29)
    at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.ResultHandlerAdapter.onFailure(ResultHandlerAdapter.java:41)
    << more stacktrace omitted >>
Caused by: org.gradle.process.internal.ExecException: A problem occurred starting process 'command 'C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_301\bin\java.exe''
    at org.gradle.process.internal.DefaultExecHandle.execExceptionFor(DefaultExecHandle.java:232)
    at org.gradle.process.internal.DefaultExecHandle.setEndStateInfo(DefaultExecHandle.java:209)
    at org.gradle.process.internal.DefaultExecHandle.failed(DefaultExecHandle.java:356)
    at org.gradle.process.internal.ExecHandleRunner.run(ExecHandleRunner.java:86)
    at org.gradle.internal.operations.CurrentBuildOperationPreservingRunnable.run(CurrentBuildOperationPreservingRunnable.java:42)
    ... 3 more
Caused by: net.rubygrapefruit.platform.NativeException: Could not start 'C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_301\bin\java.exe'
    at net.rubygrapefruit.platform.internal.DefaultProcessLauncher.start(DefaultProcessLauncher.java:27)
    at net.rubygrapefruit.platform.internal.WindowsProcessLauncher.start(WindowsProcessLauncher.java:22)
    at net.rubygrapefruit.platform.internal.WrapperProcessLauncher.start(WrapperProcessLauncher.java:36)
    at org.gradle.process.internal.ExecHandleRunner.startProcess(ExecHandleRunner.java:97)
    at org.gradle.process.internal.ExecHandleRunner.run(ExecHandleRunner.java:70)
    ... 4 more
Caused by: java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_301\bin\java.exe" (in directory "C:\JtmdGrailsPlugin"): CreateProcess error=206, The filename or extension is too long
    at net.rubygrapefruit.platform.internal.DefaultProcessLauncher.start(DefaultProcessLauncher.java:25)
    ... 8 more
Caused by: java.io.IOException: CreateProcess error=206, The filename or extension is too long
    ... 9 more

Error |
Failed to start server

Process finished with exit code 1

Answer 1

Although in the invocation it appears that a pathing jar is active, adding this explicitly (as per the grails 4 documentation - bad on me) seems to have cured the problem.

grails { pathingJar = true }