I'm creating an installer for my application using the wix toolset.
I need to include an .EXE file and execute it during/after the installation process (the .EXE shall not be installed to the application folder).
The .EXE also has a dependency on a .DLL file, which came with the .EXE file.
How can I accomplish this?
Greets
This should work ...
<CustomAction Id ="echo_test"
Directory ="INSTALLLOCATION"
ExeCommand ='NOTEPAD.EXE echo_test.txt'
Execute ="immediate"
Return ="asyncNoWait"
/>
Taken from: Call command line after installation in Wix
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I have one wix project file abv.wixproj and its product.wxs. I am able to generate its msi file by building it from Visual studio.
I would like to generate msi file using command (i.e. from .bat file).
I would like to generate msi file using nant. I got some code having <target> tag but not sure, in which file should I add this tag. should I create new file or in wsx file.
Kindly help me to share some example of nant commands to generate msi file using command line without Visual studio build
I have tried using "%WIX%bin\candle" *.wxs -o obj\ but it is giving below error
error CNDL0150 : Undefined preprocessor variable
I need one or more commands that will read wxs file and create msi or exe file by executing wix project
The .wixproj is an MSBuild project file. Just use the msbuild task from NAnt and let the targets files handle all the candle and light details for you.
I have generated an MSI using Wix for the deployment we used octopus. While running the msi build through octopus some files like dlls, .. are not getting updated in the respective path for the first time of deployment. If we install the same for second time then works fine all the files placed in the folder.
These are the steps I have followed:
I have created a Wix project and generated a msi build through that. Then through the octopus using .xml file I have deployed the content in the specified folder. And deployment was not successful through octopus.
You really haven't given any information to troubleshoot. Are you using major upgrades or minor upgrades? What's your command line? Have you logged the installers and read through the logs? What do they tell you?
msiexec /i example.msi /qn /l*v install.log
/qn = silent /l*v = verbose logging
My first suspect is that you aren't versioning your DLL's correctly and that Windows Installer is skipping over them. Please see:
File Versioning Rules
Default File Versioning
Replacing Existing Files
i am using the following command to see the logs in wix installer.
msiexec /i "D:\WixProjects\DFServicesWixSetup\DFServices\bin\Debug\DFServices.msi" /L*V "D:\DFServices.log"
but this command is trying to install the msi again.
I want to execute this command from wix after finishing the installation and log file need to save in installed folder.
can any one help me on this.
You need to decide in advance if you want Windows Installer to make a log file. You also need to decide in advance where it should go. If you want it to end up in the install folder then you either need to copy it there after installation or specify the install folder in advance, too.
In Windows Installer folders are controlled by properties. You can specify such properties in the command that starts installation. The name of the property for the "install folder" depends on how the installer authoring; INSTALLFOLDER is one typical name.
So, you could do this with a command like this:
msiexec /i "D:\WixProjects\DFServicesWixSetup\DFServices\bin\Debug\DFServices.msi" /L*V "D:\path\DFServices.log" /qb INSTALLFOLDER="D:\path"
The /qb switch is reduce the UI such that the user is offered the chance to change the installer folder. It may more may not be need for your installer, depending on what dialogs its UI normally shows.
So, the first step is to figure out which property sets the install folder in your installer.
We are using WiX to sign and create MSI files and then bundle them into a signed EXE file. The MSIs are generated fine.
Each MSI file contains a command to run at the end to kill the application. In the standard WiX manner, we use CAQuietExec to run a quiet command (we've no Form, so we can't use CloseApplication).
This works just fine for the signed MSI files and also works fine if the MSI file is bundled into an unsigned EXE file.
However, if we sign the EXE, then the signature appears OK, but the kill command causes a 1603 Error Code.
We eventually (by literally commenting out each line in the MSI WXS file, building and running the EXE) isolated the issue to the CAQuietExec line that executes a 'taskkill' command.
Is there a way we can get more information on this? It doesn't make much sense and ensures we can't deploy a bundled EXE file.
I managed to find the problem. We found :
1) .Net 45 rather than .Net4 wouldn't have the issue (i.e. changign the pre-req and out app requirement)
2) The signing should be carried out in Wix
3) Sign all contents AND the MSIs too
I need to include a dll/exe in the resulting MSI (created through a WiX project), but I do not want to deploy them during installation: I only want to use them in some CustomAction my purpose is to include an existing exe/dll and call it during installation from wxs code (not from a CustomAction dll).
Is it possible to include files which are not deployed during installation? I mean, only pack them inside the resulting MSI, and call them for some task while they are unpacked inside %temp% folder?
Also, it would be nice if somebody could show some sample code of how to include dll/exe through the Product.wxs XML code unit.
Thanks.
Yes, include them using the Binary element.
<Binary Id='MyCustomActionBinary'
SourceFile='$(var.CustomActionProject.TargetPath)' />
This will make them available to your CustomAction where you can use the BinaryKey attribute to reference the Binary:
<CustomAction Id='MyCustomAction'
BinaryKey='MyCustomActionBinary'
DllEntry='MyCustomFunction'
Execute='deferred' />
If you are using C#/DTF to write a custom action, you simply add the DLL's as references. For any other kind of file you add them to the project as Content | CopyAlways and the build will automatically include these files in the self extracting custom action. They will be available in the current directory ( a temp directory) when the CA runs and automatically cleaned up when the CA ends.