I've created an installer that upgrades our software, but for some reason the XML configuration files (those of our software) are removed when upgrading.
This appears to happen if all features of the software are upgraded.
Our software is an archive type thing. If I install just that feature and upgrade it everything is fine.
However, if I install all services accompanying the archive and upgrade those then all configuration files (and each is in a different folder!) are gone.
As an example:
<ComponentGroup Id="AutoArchiveTool" Directory="AutoArchiverFolder">
<Component Id="C_AutoArchivingTool_Gateway_exe_config" NeverOverwrite="yes" Guid="{A62D5200-FDE0-4DA1-A04A-7FBDACEA83B2}">
<File Id="F_AutoArchivingTool_Gateway_exe_config" Source="$(var.Gateway.TargetDir)Gateway.exe.config" KeyPath="yes"/>
</Component>
... more script
</ComponentGroup>
If you log the installer you can even see that it's recognized as "never overwrite":
Disallowing installation of component: {A62D5200-FDE0-4DA1-A04A-7FBDACEA83B2} since the keyfile exists and the component is marked to never overwrite existing installations
Yet it's gone after the upgrade. What am I missing?
I've see the "Permanent" property, but that's not what I want. I want the installer to leave the config files alone during an upgrade. Not leave them (config files) after removal.
NeverOverwrite does not mean "don't uninstall" so:
a) if the component ID changes between the original install and the new one the sharing won't work as you intend and the ref count will decrement and the file will be removed, this being when the upgrade is scheduled "late", such as afterInstallExecute.
b) If the upgrade is scheduled early (such as afterInstallInitialize) all the old product is uninstalled first, then the new product is installed. You haven't said where your upgrade is sequenced, but sometimes Windows Installer screws up in an "early" upgrade: it decides that the file won't be overwritten, but fails to re-evaluate this when the install turns out to be an upgrade. In this case your upgrade will complete and the file will be missing. If you have this issue then a repair of the product will restore the file from the new version of the product (because that is the current owner of the component). This won't help.
So make sure that the component ID didn't change and your upgrade is scheduled late, such as afterInstallExecute. In addition, do the upgrade with verbose logging to verify what's going on.
Having said all that, NeverOverwrite is often used to solve a problem that doesn't exist. The file overwrite rules (that are invoked by a "late" upgrade) say that modified files won't be overwritten:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa370531(v=vs.85).aspx
So if the first setup installs the file, then it gets updated by the app, then your upgrade runs it will not replace the modified file anyway, and there is no need to set NeverOverwrite.
Related
We have a problem that a fie is not installed upon a major update
We have a major update with <MajorUpgrade Schedule="afterInstallInitialize"...
We an old component with 1 file (xyz.exe Version 12.34) from a external manufacturer
We have now a new file from a new manufacturer and with the same name (xyz.exe Version 2.34). The new file has a lower version number than the old one.
We created a new component in the install package and removed the old component (in fact we gave it a new guid)
Changing the name of the exe isn't possible, it would have to much influence upon documentation and internal functions.
On a normal installation everything is OK.
But what happens now on an update:
The installer starts.
And detects that the new component exists (xyz.exe) with a lower version, so it will not be installed.
the installer runs and removes the old component
But it doesn't install the new because it just detected that the component was already installed.
Doing a repair installation fixes the problem and the file is than again present.
Setting the KeyPath to the Component fixes the problem. But it seams wrong to me. The directory where this file is installed is the main installation directory.
How to force the installation of this component?
Similar Answer: How to Explicitly Remove dll During Majorupgrade Using Wix Toolset
Major Upgrade Downgrade: In order to overwrite binaries with higher version numbers on major upgrades there are a couple of preferred options:
The preferred approach would be to use a companion file (third party files).
Or if you can: compile a new binary with a higher version number (for your own files).
Companion Files: A snippet below on how to use companion files in WiX:
<..>
<Component Id="MyFile.exe" Feature="Main">
<File Id="MyFile.exe" Source="MyFile.exe"></File>
</Component>
<!-- Do not re-use any GUIDs in your own sources! (very important) -->
<Component Id="MyFile_2.exe" Guid="{00000000-0000-0000-0000-3D82EA2A99AF}" Feature="Main">
<File Source="MyFile_2.exe" CompanionFile="MyFile.exe"></File>
</Component>
<..>
One-Line Summary: In the second component we point to the first component's file so that MyFile_2.exe will install whenever MyFile.exe is installed - regardless of versioning issues.
Then there are a number of further options:
REINSTALLMODE: The MSI property REINSTALLMODE can be used - but it has a number of side-effects:
Setup 1: Version 1.0.0 for a setup:
msiexec.exe /i Setup1.msi /qn
Setup 2: Version 2.0.0 for the major upgrade setup:
msiexec.exe /i Setup2.msi REINSTALLMODE=amus /qn
Several Problems: There are several issues with REINSTALLMODE that makes it an unsafe feature to use (try emus instead? See documentation - a little less brute force maybe). It is a shame that this setting applies to all features in the setup - that makes it very dangerous:
can downgrade shared files system-wide - if there are merge modules included - for example (features in Windows are in place to prevent most of this problem: WFP and WRP in Vista an beyond - non-Microsoft merge modules can still cause problems for non-Microsoft shared files)
can cause inconsistent version estate since an old package can be installed after a newer one and downgrade only some of the shared files
can downgrade or wipe-out settings in non-versioned files and registry settings (note to self: test this again, there are complexities with component settings)
can cause a significant increase in the number of requested reboots due to attempts to needlessly replace in-use files of the same version (the real fix for this is to shut down services properly and to use the restart manager to allow applications to be shut down automatically during deployment - on file locks).
there are several further issues that are quite specific
Hack Binary Version: An ugly, but effective option is to change the version of the actual binary file using Visual Studio to set a higher version number (you open the binary as a resource and set a new version - this is obviously very different from compiling a new version of the binary using visual studio source code compilation). There are several side effects:
you break digital signatures
you can create "version confusion"
there are risks involved writing a new binary from Visual Studio
it is a "hack manual step" - you might need to keep doing this for new versions?
etc...
Move, Rename: If you can de-couple the new file from the old by renaming it or moving it you can work around the problem. If you get a new version again for the future, you might have to do this again. Clunky.
"Load From": Putting the file somewhere shared and load it from that specific location and removing the old copy from your installation folder. Could that work? This means the file could also be delivered by another setup at that location.
Version Lying: In Installshield there is a concept of being able to set a specific version number to a file. I am not sure how to implement that in WiX. There is also an "always overwrite option" that apparently sets a maximum value for the version so the existing file is always overwritten.
Some Links:
Why Windows Installer removes files during a major upgrade if they go backwards in version numbers
"Downgraded" MS dll disappears on upgrade - Windows Installer
Install a file regardless of version number with WiX
How to make better use of MSI files
The opposite side of it: file preservation and file overwrite rules.
I'm using WiX 3.8 (the latest stable release, I think), and I can't seem to get a config file to not get uninstalled-and-reinstalled during a major upgrade.
There are lots of questions about this on SO -- a lot of answers point to this site as a good answer. However, the suggestion given doesn't work (for me).
What the site says is to place each config file in its own component and mark the file as the key path of the component. Something like this:
<Component Id="config.xml"
Guid="*"
Directory="folder_where_config_file_lives">
<File Id="config_file"
Source="$(var.Project.ProjectDir)bin\Release\configFile.xml"
KeyPath="yes"/>
</Component>
Great. Next it says to schedule RemoveExistingProduct after the InstallFiles action, like so:
<InstallExecuteSequence>
<RemoveExistingProducts After="InstallFiles"/>
</InstallExecuteSequence>
Problem is, when I compile, I get this error:
The InstallExecuteSequence table contains an action
'RemoveExistingProducts' that is declared in two different locations.
Please remove one of the actions or set the Overridable='yes'
attribute on one of their elements.
This person also had that problem, but he seems to have solved it. What fixed it for him was adding a scheduling attribute to the , which effectively got rid of the "two different locations" declaration problem (I guess):
<MajorUpgrade Schedule="afterInstallInitialize"
DowngradeErrorMessage="A newer version of [ProductName] is already installed."/>
So when I substitute the schedule change attribute (which contains a attribute itself, I guess), not only does it not work -- the config file gets removed and replaced during the upgrade -- it causes even more weirdness. My project has a bootstrapper with a lot of MSIs, and although I get log files for the installation of all of the MSIs that are after the MSI that contains the config file, they aren't installed.
Let me repeat that: the logs say that the MSIs are installed, but they aren't. There's probably a rollback somewhere that I can't find in the log files, but reading the MSI log files it looks like the installation went swimminly.
Does anyone know a way for a config file to not be removed-and-reinstalled during a Major Upgrade in Wix 3.8? What I've mentioned above is the best info from the interwebs that I could find, but I've tried pretty much everything on SO to no avail.
The MajorUpgrade element has everything you need, including where the RemoveExistingProducts action is scheduled. Don't add a RemoveExistingProducts into a sequence as well.
RemoveExistingProducts shouldn't be after InstallFiles. It's not clear where that comes from, but the documentation doesn't say that's a choice:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa371197(v=vs.85).aspx
When RemoveExistingProducts is sequenced early (such as after InstallInitialize or InstallValidate) it means that you are effectively uninstalling the old product followed by an install of the new product upgrade, and that means uninstalling the config file and installing the one in the upgrade. The way to retain the config file is to schedule REP afterInstallExecute. This results in an upgrade that is basically a version-rules install of the new product over the older installed one. The version rules mean that if you want updated binaries you must update their file versions. The good news about data files (your config file) is that updated data files won't be replaced:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa370531(v=vs.85).aspx
The older product then gets uninstalled, retaining the resulting set of files.
So sequencing of REP afterInstallExecute in the MajorUpgrade seems to be what you want. A caveat is that you need to follow component rules, which should happen automatically if you have auto-generated * guids in WiX.
IMO, Windows Installer was invented before XML caught on and the component rules don't handle it well. What I prefer to do is to not fight this behavior. Write your application so that one config file is owned by the installer and can always be safely overwritten and another config file that holds your user configuration data and that MSI doesn't know about. This second file should take override the first file.
I have two work modes in my installer:
use config files left from previous installation
delete all existing configs and put default configs instead
The mode is determined by the checkbox in the WPF UI of the installer. If second mode is selected, then CustomAction is run, which manually deletes the configs folder from disk:
<InstallExecuteSequence>
<Custom Action="RemoveConfigsFolder" After="RemoveFolders" Overridable="yes">NOT Installed AND DELETESETTINGS=1</Custom>
</InstallExecuteSequence>
I'm using NeverOverwrite attribute:
<ComponentGroup Id="Configs" Directory="INSTALLDIR" >
<Component Id="Configs" Permanent="yes" NeverOverwrite="yes">
<File Id="main.config" Name="main.config" Source=".\Configs\main.config" KeyPath="yes" />
</Component>
</ComponentGroup>
The first mode works fine in this case, but when I try to use second mode it fails and all configs are just deleted and never created again during the installation.
During my research of the issue, I think I've found the reason why this happens: https://community.flexerasoftware.com/showthread.php?96157-The-truth-the-whole-truth-about-quot-Never-overwrite-quot-and-quot-Permanent-quot-files&p=156826#post156826
Actually this is a Windows Installer issue. If you log the uninstall
you will notice that very early in the installation the Installer
decides that the component containing this file will not be installed
because it is marked "Never Overwrite" and a copy of this file already
exists on the target machine. The uninstall happens after that which
removes the existing file. This is because the Installer decides this
when the "CostFinalize" action is launched. This action HAS to be run
before the "RemoveFiles" action.
But how do I fix it?
The problem with settings such as Never Overwrite or Permanent is they look like build settings, but they are not really - they stick to the system attached to the component id. So resetting in the project won't help because it's associated with that id. It's also not clear why setting Never Overwrite might have been a solution to some problem, because by definition patches and overwrite upgrades won't overwrite it, but overwriting it is a requirement of your setup.
Even if you had not set Never Overwrite the Windows Installer rules would not overwrite the file if it was modified after install. So if you had installed it, then it was altered, and then you did an upgrade, the file would not be overwritten (which is another reason why Never Overwrite does not seem needed).
Another issue is that your custom action RemoveConfigsFolder is not marked with an Execute enumeration value, therefore it is immediate, therefore it does not run elevated, therefore it might simply be failing, so without seeing the code it's impossible to say if reports an issue if it can't do the remove. It's also not possible to determine if it explicitly specifies the full path to the folder correctly. So the most likely quick fix to this issue is to mark the custom action as execute deferred, and the DELETESETTINGS value will need to be passed in via CustomActionData.
My initial thought is to remove the 'Never Overwrite' property. Then create a component condition that checks if the file exists. My thought is that your custom action has the condition to correctly remove the config files. If the files do not exist then the components will be selected for install.
We have a MSI built with wix that installs our ruby based product. When we released the first version there was a bug. Upgrades would overwrite changes to a ruby config file (gemrc), effectively breaking the product in some cases.
I've been trying to get MSI to not remove or replace the config file on upgrades, without success.
What i have now is:
<InstallExecuteSequence>
<RemoveExistingProducts After="InstallExecuteAgain" />
</InstallExecuteSequence>
<Directory Id="embeddedDir" Name="embedded">
<Directory Id="embeddedEtcDir" Name="etc">
<Component Id="gemrcComponent" Guid="uuid..." NeverOverwrite='yes' Permanent='yes'>
<File Id='gemrc' Name='gemrc'
Source='$(var.ProjectSourceDir)\embedded\etc\gemrc.default' Vital='yes' KeyPath='yes' />
</Component>
</Directory>
</Directory>
However, going from the current version (1.0) to the new version (1.1) will leave the installation with no gemrc at all. Going forward it works, so going from 1.1 to 1.2 it leaves the existing (modified) file.
I'm assuming, that the reason it doesn't work is because it uses the old 1.0 MSI to remove the existing installation, and that version has the gemrc file marked as part of the product that needs to be removed.
This means the only way i could get around this is using custom actions (copy the file to a temp path before installation, and then move it back afterwards.
Or something similar). Is there a better/easier way?
Some of the reasons you may be seeing this are as follows, but there's not enough information to say which might apply in your cases:
If you originally had a major upgrade scheduled "early" (InstallInitialize or sooner) then the upgrade would completely uninstall the older product and then install the new one. This would look like an overwrite of the config file, but strictly speaking it's not. You do not say if you ever identified the actual root cause of this issue or if the major upgrade was scheduled differently.
In a major upgrade scheduled after InstallExecuteAgain, the upgrade installs on top of the old product and follows file replacement rules. So if the config file had really been updated after install it would not be replaced.
If the component id of the config file changed between any of the setups then you'd see it removed (even in an InstallExecuteAgain upgrade). File sharing is ref counted by component id, so if the upgrade has a component id for the config file that is not the same as the previous installs then you'd see strange behavior because the ref count of the previous file means it would be removed, but you're attempting to install another of the same name with different id.
You should do your upgrades with verbose MSI logging enabled to see what happens to the config file. If it's not clear from that, then post it somewhere accessible for others to look at.
I am struggling to get MajorUpgrade, ServiceControl, .config files to work nicely together. After my other question, I'm now kinda having the opposite problem again.
Before, the files weren't being overwritten because the AssemblyFileVersions were static so I fixed that. 1) Now, even with Schedule="afterInstallExecute" my KeyPath='yes' .config file is still being overwritten even though the existing file modified date is different than the file creation date and it is set as a KeyPath. I'm currently having to overwrite the .config file and restart the service after the install.
2) And even if I fix that, I still have a problem of avoiding a reboot. If I say Schedule="afterInstallInitialize" then I believe the .config file will certainly be removed along with the service too early. If I say Schedule="afterInstallExecute" then the service isn't stopped and after the install a reboot is necessary. (That's right, right?) Stopping the service manually prior to the install let's me avoid the reboot. Adding a net stop custom action could work to replace the ServiceControl I guess, but getting all the conditions right seems complex.
3) As a bonus, I'd like to NOT remove the service at all during an upgrade. Can I just stop the service, replace the binary, and start the service again? That will avoid re-entering the service account credentials for an upgrade. But of course it still needs to install on a first install and uninstall on a feature removal.
Here's the meat of it (which is also bundled later, in case that somehow matters):
<MajorUpgrade DowngradeErrorMessage="A newer version is already installed."
Schedule="afterInstallExecute" />
<ComponentGroup Id="ServiceCG">
<Component Id="Service" Guid='*' Win64='yes' Directory='INSTALLDIR'>
<File Id='ServiceEXE' Source='$(var.root)Service.exe' />
<ServiceInstall Id="ServiceInstall"
Name="MyService"
DisplayName="My Server"
Type="ownProcess"
Start="auto"
ErrorControl="normal"
Description="My Server Service"
Interactive="no"
Account="[...]"
Password="[...]" />
<ServiceControl Id="StopService" Name="MyService" Start="install"
Stop="uninstall" Wait="yes" Remove="both" />
<util:User Id="UpdateServiceAccountLogonAsService" UpdateIfExists="yes"
CreateUser="no" Name="[SERVICEACCOUNTFULL]"
LogonAsService="yes"/>
</Component>
<Component Id="ServiceConfig" Guid='*' Win64='yes' Directory='INSTALLDIR'>
<File Id='FileServiceConfig' KeyPath='yes'
Source='$(var.root)Service.exe.config' />
</Component>
</ComponentGroup>
Related but unanswered:
Prevent service removal/install during WiX major upgrade - service not stopping
WiX version 3.8.1128.0
EDIT: it seems this explanation of the same issue, or on the same topic at least, might be easier to understand: Msiexec: automatic rollback to previous version on installation failure
You are banging your head against several core MSI usage problems here.
File versioning: during installation the default file overwrite mode (defined by the REINSTALLMODE property) won't replace files that are equal version by default. This can be changed by setting REINSTALLMODE = "emus". This will replace files with equal version for versioned files. Unversioned files will be preserved if modify and create dates are different.
Upgrade behavior: like Chris says, files that appear to be reverted to default are actually uninstalled and reinstalled due to major upgrade configuration. File preservation is only possible in major upgrades if RemoveExistingProducts is placed late in the InstallExecuteSequence. Then shared files between releases are never uninstalled and the file versioning rules described in point 1 apply for overwriting.
Service configuration preservation: avoiding re-entry of service credential information is a common problem for major upgrades that uninstall early in the InstallExecuteSequence. In other words the product is uninstalled and then reinstalled wiping out changed files. I don't recommend it, but some people argue for this solution: How to only stop and not uninstall windows services when major upgrade in wix? (Rob Mensching is the WIX and Orca author - I think he is suggesting this solution as an option, and not necessarily a recommendation. Please ask in the linked post to be sure). With correct component referencing and uninstall placed late in the InstallExecuteSequence this problem is normally avoided altogether, and this is then a preferred approach (normal component referencing prevent the component from uninstalling altogether leaving service settings and changed config files intact - if, and only if, component referencing is correct - see description of this concept below). However, my preferred approach is still to use a separate MSI for the service install and configuration if you are using a user account to run the service - then it is a self contained deployment unit and can be included in a bootstrapper and updated on its own, and best of all: it is undisturbed by any other application changes or hotfixes. Finally I would like to point out that a service running with a user account isn't a recommended approach to begin with - for security and deployment reasons alike.
Component referencing: refers to the GUIDs assigned to MSI components and how they must match one, and only one (absolute) path at all times through all upgrades. See a better discussion of this with a couple of examples here: Change my component GUID in wix?
I didn't mention the option of setting the MSI components installing services to permanent to prevent their removal on uninstall for the simple reason that this isn't good practice at all. Then files and registration will remain on final uninstall, and you need a custom action to clean up. Very bad practice and bound to cause lots of extra work and problems with dangling component references.
The file create/mod rule only applies to install/reinstall a component. It doesn't prevent the component from being uninstalled. Your major upgrade is scheduled very early which means the previous version is completely uninstalled and then then the new version is installed. This is why your file is overwriting when you don't expect it to. Schedule RemoveExistingProducts later to avoid this problem.
Set your Stop attribute to both install and uninstall. Those two changes should solve your problems.