Skip to content

mxcli new warns that the project path exceeds the MxToolset 259-character limit, then hangs forever in the first build instead of failing #1026

Description

@MendixMau

Summary

mxcli new correctly detects an over-length output path at step 2 and prints a clear warning.
It then continues to "Step 6/7: Running the first build" and never returns: no output, no
timeout, no non-zero exit. Observed hung for ~10 hours. The project itself is created and
fully usable; only the settle-build hangs.

Environment

  • mxcli: v0.20.0 (2026-08-28)
  • Mendix / mxbuild: 11.14.0
  • OS: Linux amd64 (Claude Code web container; session scratch directories are ~126 characters
    before the project name is appended)
  • Reproducible: yes, on any output path over the limit

Steps to reproduce

mkdir -p /some/very/deep/scratch/path/…   # such that <path>/<App>/… exceeds 259 chars
mxcli new App --version 11.14.0 --output-dir /some/very/deep/scratch/path

Output at step 2:

Warning: this project's path is 49 characters longer than Mendix tooling allows.
  Total 308 exceeds the 259-character limit MxToolset enforces.
  ... `mx` commands against it can fail with PathTooLongException.

Then Step 6/7: Running the first build — and nothing further, indefinitely.

Why it matters

An unattended or background mxcli new in a deep directory consumes the entire run silently:
there is no error to react to and no exit to wait on.

Expected

Having detected the condition, either refuse before step 6 (exit non-zero with the warning as
the reason) or bound the first build with a timeout that fails loudly. A warning followed by an
unbounded blocking call is the worst of both.

Workaround

Create in a short path (/tmp/<short>/), or pass --skip-build — the project produced
without step 6 is fully usable (verified: SHOW MODULES, exec, and native mx check all
work against it).

Activity

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

No one assigned

    Labels

    No labels
    No labels

    Type

    No type

    Projects

    No projects

      Milestone

      No milestone

      Relationships

      None yet

      Development

      No branches or pull requests

      Issue actions