Job is failing because a parameter length exceeded

Last Reviewed:2025-02-25()
1 minute readKnowledge base

Issue

When using very large parameters in a given job, the builds fail throwing the following in the logs:

Caused by: hudson.plugins.git.GitException: Error performing git command: git $SOME_WORKSPACE_PATH
	at org.jenkinsci.plugins.gitclient.CliGitAPIImpl.launchCommandIn(CliGitAPIImpl.java:2748)
	at org.jenkinsci.plugins.gitclient.CliGitAPIImpl.launchCommandIn(CliGitAPIImpl.java:2662)
	at org.jenkinsci.plugins.gitclient.CliGitAPIImpl.launchCommandIn(CliGitAPIImpl.java:2658)
	at org.jenkinsci.plugins.gitclient.CliGitAPIImpl.launchCommand(CliGitAPIImpl.java:1981)
	at org.jenkinsci.plugins.gitclient.CliGitAPIImpl$5.execute(CliGitAPIImpl.java:1047)
	[...]
Caused by: java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "git" (in directory "$SOME_WORKSPACE_PATH"): error=7, Argument list too long
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Environment

Resolution

First of all, this is not an issue but a limitation, and it’s not a Jenkins limitation but a OS limitation as explained in https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/faq/coreutils-faq.html#Argument-list-too-long and https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/shell-experience/command-line-string-limitation.

This topic has been already raised by JENKINS-65958 (related to JENKINS-38576).

A redesign of your Pipeline will be required to have a shorter parameter list.

Tested product/plugin versions

This article is part of our Knowledge Base and is provided for guidance-based purposes only. The solutions or workarounds described here are not officially supported by CloudBees and may not be applicable in all environments. Use at your own discretion, and test changes in a safe environment before applying them to production systems.