ninja: Sporadic failure on Windows with `FindFirstFileExA`

I still got this error with cmake 3.28.3

ninja: error: FindFirstFileExA(Note: including file:     C:/Program Files (x86)/Windows Kits/10/include/10.0.22621.0/shared): The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.

I believe this was fixed in https://github.com/microsoft/CMake/commit/843fc607de7 which first appeared in cmake v3.26.3-msvc1. But MS is currently distributing cmake v3.26.0-msvc3.

Thus, this is not an ninja issue, but an issue with cmake. Furthermore it has been fixed, but MS hasn’t distributed the fixed executable yet.

A workaround is to define a cmake variable in the CMake command arguments box: -DCMAKE_CL_SHOWINCLUDES_PREFIX=“Note: including file:”

The build system generation will create a ninja.rules with the “” -> “Note: including file:”

If i edit CMakeFiles/rules.ninja after “Delete Cache and Reconfigure”, but before “Build All” then I can clean and rebuild repeatedly.

$ diff CMakeFiles/rules.ninja ../../..
38c38
<   command = C:/PROGRA~1/MICROS~4/2022/COMMUN~1/Common7/IDE/COMMON~1/MICROS~1/CMake/CMake/bin/cmcldeps.exe RC $in $DEP_FILE $out "" "C:/PROGRAM FILES/MICROSOFT VISUAL STUDIO/2022/COMMUNITY/VC/Tools/Llvm/x64/bin/clang-cl.exe" C:\PROGRA~2\WI3CF2~1\10\bin\100220~1.0\x64\rc.exe $DEFINES $INCLUDES $FLAGS /fo $out $in
---
>   command = C:/PROGRA~1/MICROS~4/2022/COMMUN~1/Common7/IDE/COMMON~1/MICROS~1/CMake/CMake/bin/cmcldeps.exe RC $in $DEP_FILE $out "Note: including file:" "C:/PROGRAM FILES/MICROSOFT VISUAL STUDIO/2022/COMMUNITY/VC/Tools/Llvm/x64/bin/clang-cl.exe" C:\PROGRA~2\WI3CF2~1\10\bin\100220~1.0\x64\rc.exe $DEFINES $INCLUDES $FLAGS /fo $out $in
128c128
<   command = C:/PROGRA~1/MICROS~4/2022/COMMUN~1/Common7/IDE/COMMON~1/MICROS~1/CMake/CMake/bin/cmcldeps.exe RC $in $DEP_FILE $out "" "C:/PROGRAM FILES/MICROSOFT VISUAL STUDIO/2022/COMMUNITY/VC/Tools/Llvm/x64/bin/clang-cl.exe" C:\PROGRA~2\WI3CF2~1\10\bin\100220~1.0\x64\rc.exe $DEFINES $INCLUDES $FLAGS /fo $out $in
---
>   command = C:/PROGRA~1/MICROS~4/2022/COMMUN~1/Common7/IDE/COMMON~1/MICROS~1/CMake/CMake/bin/cmcldeps.exe RC $in $DEP_FILE $out "Note: including file:" "C:/PROGRAM FILES/MICROSOFT VISUAL STUDIO/2022/COMMUNITY/VC/Tools/Llvm/x64/bin/clang-cl.exe" C:\PROGRA~2\WI3CF2~1\10\bin\100220~1.0\x64\rc.exe $DEFINES $INCLUDES $FLAGS /fo $out $in

Happens to me whenever I tell cmake to use clang-cl instead of msvc on Windows. The problem is that the file name it wants to find is called "note: inluding file: c:/...." and obviously, that is not a proper filename. I replaced all "note: " strings in my repository but still get this error. So I don’t know where it comes from.

And btw, if I change the generator to “MinGW Makefiles”, it works. So this must be a ninja problem.