I just ran into this same issue after adding the WiFiManager library by tzapu. Will not compile under either Debug or Release configurations.   

I created a "board.txt" file with just the line "vm.settings.shorten-include-paths=true" as suggested (placed in the same folder as the main project ino file) but that made no difference, either.   

Will appreciate any help!

I just encountered the following compile error after adding another library header to a rather large ESP32 project:
"xtensa-esp32-elf-g++*: error: CreateProcess: No such file or directory".  (MicroBuild output with "Show Build Properties" enabled is attached.)

I was intrigued by a reply from a Visual Micro team member in another thread dealing with what appeared to be the same issue.  Based on what I read there I tried compiling in both Release and Debug configurations.  I received fewer instances of the error using the Release config, but the project still fails to compile.

If I understand the diagnosis from the other thread correctly then the issue may be related to the command line exceeding a 32k limit imposed by the Windows(R) OS.  A potential interim solution suggested in the other thread was to create "a local board.txt file" containing a vm setting (vm.settings.shorten-include-paths=true) to shorten include paths.  I tried following the brief instructions there but the problem persists, so I am wondering if I misunderstood the instructions or implemented them incorrectly.   

I will appreciate somebody taking a look at the attached build log and suggest what I might try to work around the problem.

Thank you!

Thank you for the quick reply.  I followed your instructions, updating to version 23.0731.03, but now have have a new problem: Shortening the include paths apparently causes the system to fail finding needed include files.  See the attached Micro Build log; the key error is 

"arduino.h: 33:10: fatal error: freertos/FreeRTOS.h: No such file or directory
   #include "freertos/FreeRTOS.h"

I get the same error trying to compile other projects that previously compiled fine without the Board.text file with the "vm.settings.use-single-backslashes=true" flag setting.

Thoughts on what I might try next?

Simon,

First, installing the next update, the 23.0731.05 version, together with setting the flags you advised, solved the issues I was having.  Setting the vm.settings.use-single-backslashes flag didn't prove necessary for the project whose MicroBuild logs I shared earlier (yet), but I tried with and without and see how setting to true significantly and further shortens the compiler command line parameter string.

Thank you for the work solving the issue and for your patience explaining both the cause and solution.   

If you could still use an example project demonstrating the issue I encountered using vm.settings.shorten-include-paths=true with the 23.0731.03 version I am happy to do so - just let me know, but as I explained, the 23.0731.05 version has me up and running again.

Finally, I just want to recognize you, Tim and the VisualMicro team for such responsive and effective customer support.  I've been using VM for several years but I rarely post questions here thanks to the thorough documentation and video help, and because of the many detailed explanations on this forum.  Very well done.

Attached is an anonymized version of the project I started having the issues with.  The "LibraryLinks.txt" file contains links to the GitHub repos for the non-standard libraries used.

The original issue can be reproduced by UN-commenting line 26 of the "PTS Embedded.ino" and compiling under a version predating the 23.0731.03 version. Including the WiFiManager library first tipped the length of the compiler command line over the limit.  This results in multiple "xtensa-esp32-elf-g++*: error: CreateProcess: No such file or directory" errors.

Compiling under the 23.0731.03 version and setting the vm.settings.shorten-include-paths flag true results in multiple errors finding other include files.  The first one that come up for me is "FreeRTOS.h", which is included from the "Arduino.h" header file.

I do hope this helps, and please ask if I can provide additional information or context.

thanks for the email.

please send output with debug off. You might just need to switch to "Release" on the toolbar

after that put a # up the front of the two lines in your board.txt

if that fails to build please add this to the board.txt

vm.build.compile-relative-paths-at-max-chars=1

Some potentially useful information diagnosing this problem:

I thought I remembered reading somewhere else on this forum that the problem related back to a MS Windows OS issue with the maximum allowable length of a command line string.  I noticed that the file paths generated and displayed in the output window (with the verbose setting enabled) were long partly because of where my Arduino libraries folder and where the Visual Micro temporary build folder were located.   

I tried a few experiments to shorten the paths generated and displayed in Visual Micro Micro Build output window.  First, I created a C:\VMTemp folder in the root of my main drive and set this as the build folder in the Visual Micro options.  I also moved my Arduino libraries folder closer to the c:\ root.  Doing so alleviated the error I reported a couple of days ago with my "NavModule" project, presumably because the paths generated and as displayed in the verbose output stream were noticeably shorter.  The changes unfortunately did not alleviate the issue with another, larger project ("CSSModule"), which still compiles in a Release configuration but not under Debug.   

Both these are large projects with dozens of files and classes, so I expect that all I've done with these folder changes is buy a little time as these projects will continue to grow.

You are probably already well aware of what I am reporting here but wanted to share these observations in the hope they might help further diagnose and resolve the issue for large projects like this.

I took the experiment outlined in my last post one step farther by moving the board packages folder closer to the drive root, too.  More specifically, the Arduino installation had it at 

C:\Users\Mitchell Baldwin\AppData\Local\Arduino15

I moved the ..\Arduino15 folder into the C:\Arduino folder, updated the vMicro | General | Configure Arduino IDE Locations(s) settings accordingly, and was rewarded with a significant reduction in path lengths on the hundreds of references to the hardware folders in the build output.  This allows me to build my largest project ("CSSModule" referred to earlier) under the Debug configuration now.

I think this latest change bought a lot of headroom and so time for me to continue adding to these projects, but if there is anything I can do or further information I can provide that might help resolve this issue please do let me know. 

In the meantime, if others run into this problem, a viable work-around seems to be adjusting the location of the Arduino library and board package folders to be as close to root as reasonable, and to place the vMicro temporary build folder near the root, too.