diff --git a/lib/bb/utils.py b/lib/bb/utils.py
index 70634910..d890ea83 100644
--- a/lib/bb/utils.py
+++ b/lib/bb/utils.py
@@ -451,6 +451,10 @@ def lockfile(name, shared=False, retry=True, block=False):
     consider the possibility of sending a signal to the process to break
     out - at which point you want block=True rather than retry=True.
     """
+    if len(name) > 255:
+        root, ext = os.path.splitext(name)
+        name = root[:255 - len(ext)] + ext
+
     dirname = os.path.dirname(name)
     mkdirhier(dirname)
 
@@ -487,7 +491,7 @@ def lockfile(name, shared=False, retry=True, block=False):
                     return lf
             lf.close()
         except OSError as e:
-            if e.errno == errno.EACCES:
+            if e.errno == errno.EACCES or e.errno == errno.ENAMETOOLONG:
                 logger.error("Unable to acquire lock '%s', %s",
                              e.strerror, name)
                 sys.exit(1)