PRB: INCLUDE Path Longer Than 71 Bytes Causes RC EXEC Failure

ID Number: Q40464

2.03 2.10

WINDOWS

buglist2.03 buglist2.10 fixlist3.00

Summary:

SYMPTOMS

Setting the MS-DOS environment variable INCLUDE to a long string

(more than 71 characters) causes the version of RC.EXE included

with the Windows version 2.03 or 2.10 SDK (Software Development

Kit) to fail with the following error message:

EXEC Failed - make sure RCPP.EXE is installed correctly.

This error occurs even though RCPP is installed correctly.

CAUSE

The RC (Resource Compiler) passes all arguments to RCPP via the

MS-DOS command line, which is limited to 127 bytes. Include paths

are processed by RC and passed to RCPP via -I switches. Therefore,

INCLUDE paths are included in the 127-byte limit.

RESOLUTION

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the version of RC

included with the Windows versions 2.03 and 2.10 SDK. This problem

was corrected in the version of RC included with the Windows version

3.00 SDK. In the version of RC included with the Windows version

3.00 SDK, arguments are passed in an environment variable of

arbitrary length.