automate, unattended or silent installation of a software - automation

Question

I have a software. It has GUI setup for windows and CLI install.sh for linux. On execution it asks user to accept license and on acceptance it asks for installation location, key, server ip, port, and a couple more option one after the other. I want to make the installation unattended so that the user double click a file and the next step is software installed. Any suggestions, thanks in advance.

Answer 1

The answer depends on what InstallShield project type you are using. I highly suggest Basic MSI. InstallScript custom actions are OK but don't use an InstallScript or InstallScript MSI project type.
Assuming the above, you create Secure Custom Public Properties so they can be passed at the command line. You also create custom dialogs so that the values can be entered during an interactive installation. Then you create validation custom actions that can guard against bad data in both scenarios. Finally you use the properties in Registry, INI, XML et al system changes so that they can be applied where needed for your application.
Your silent install then looks like:
msiexec /I foo.msi /qn INSTALLDIR=C:\FOO KEY=12345 SERVERIP=10.0.0.1
PORT=12345 /l*v install.log
Also be sure to understand the concept that properties aren't persisted automatically by MSI. You'll need some AppSearch/System Searches to retrieve the stored values for reuse during upgrade / patch / repair scenarios.

Answer 2

What you need is called Silent mode. Check your installation system's manual for this keyword.
Many installation systems support it - I can recommend you to use NSIS (/SILENT parameter) or Inno Setup (/SILENT, /VERYSILENT) if you did not started with creating your setup yet.
These are free (open source) installation systems and they are really powerful.
Be careful with this feature - many users are confused when they click the application icon and nothing happens (no window opens).

Answer 3

Ok I did this using expect tool (free). Here install.sh is the file I want to execute automatically and send are my options in response to the questions it asks during installation. Let me know if any problem following this.
!/usr/local/bin/expect
spawn "./install.sh"
set timeout 2
expect {WARNING: It is strongly recommended that you install RVS as root. Do you wish to run the installer as root [Y/n]}
send "Y\r"
send "xxxxxx\r"
expect {Press enter to read the License Agreement:}
send "ENTER\r"
expect {Do you accept the License Agreement [y/N]?}
send "y\r"
expect {Where do you want to install the tools [/usr/local/pkg/RVS/v3.1a]?}
send "ENTER\r"
expect {Where do you want to create links for tools [/usr/local/bin]?}
send "ENTER\r"
expect {Where do you want to create links for libraries [usr/local/lib]}
send "ENTER\r"
expect {Which license type do you wish to use [N/f/a]?}
send "f\r"
expect {IP address:}
send "1.1.1.1\r"
expect {Port:}
send "33\r"
expect {SERVERKEY}
send "xxxxxxxxxxxx\r"
expect {Do you want to install support for GNAT Pro {6.0, 6.1, 6.4} (You need a GNAT Pro license in order to use this feature) [y/N]?}
send "y\r"
expect {Proceed with the installation [Y/n]?}
send "y\r"
spawn "rvsinfo"
interact