I want to patch an msi install. If the time stamp of an otherwise identical file is different in the baseline msi vs the current msi, will that be detected as a changed file and consequently be included in the resulting msp file? If yes, is there a way to avoid this?
The specific scenario is the following: Suppose baseline msi has dlls A and B and is built on date X - during the build process all dlls are generated. The new msi has dll A which changed and dll B which is the same and it is build on date Y - dlls A and B will also be build and have timestamp Y. Will B be included in the differencing msp file? (I use wix)
Windows Installer will generally not replace a DLL that shares the same version as its predecessor (and thus I'd guess WiX's build may exclude it). However if your DLL files are unversioned and you're not using companion files that have versions, the dates on the already-installed file can get involved in unfortunate ways: the file can be detected as user data and be excluded from replacement. See File Versioning Rules for details, along with its link to Default File Versioning.
Related
I have a WiX project making msi which replaces much older installation which was made by a set of scripts which unpacked zip files.
I'd like to specify that certain files in msi must force overwrite already existing non-versioned files from the old installation. Later it wouldn't be a pb as msi to msi update would be an upgrade.
Is it possible to specify on a per-file basis that msi must overwrite old non-msi installed files?
I will add some links for you and a summary.
Yes, you can overwrite single files by various means and you can even
force downgrade files setup-wide, but the latter is terribly dangerous
to do (information on dangers in section 4 here).
Ensure Overwrite: This answer describes various measures to always-overwrite files: Ensure file overwriting - with a WiX example. Here is an alternative answer.
The use of companion files is what I would recommend.
Hacking file versions I do myself sometimes - just to make things work.
I prefer to move or rename files to "remove the problem".
See the above links for more on the above "options".
Further information:
On file overwriting in general - step-by-step (describes the REINSTALLMODE property and the problems that are caused by using it to force-downgrading files during installation)
We have 2 installer sources in WiX to create installer for a single product with same Product Version, GUID and Package GUID also.
Those 2 installer projects will yield different outputs, one output being just a single MSI file (File1.msi) and other project output is a CD-ROM structure having different MSI file name (File2.msi).
So now issue arises when we installed the product using single MSI file, upon that if we invoke MSI from the other CD-ROM output, we end up getting below mentioned error.
I tried keeping same MSI filename for both kind of installer output, then this above error dialog was resolved but repair functionality isn't working.
If some files were deleted in the product's destination folder, it says source file not found error pointing to CD-ROM installer source folder.
Please help where I'm going wrong. I want to support Repair installation without this errors.
The dialog is expected. You can't change the name of the MSI except during major upgrades.
After that, if you rebuilt to create the different layouts, each MSI probably has a unique PackageCode and that makes them unique packages. That is most likely why repair isn't working. A verbose log file should tell all.
Updated: Compile your main MSI, then run administrative image on it and put the extracted files and MSI on the CD? Put the compressed
version on there as well - just in case they prefer that kind of
release (happens).
I am not sure what will happen when you run both setups this way, but
I think the MSI flagged as an administrative image extract might be
detected by the engine. I am not sure. Should work. Built-in approach for MSI, and you are not fighting wind-mills.
User Accounts: Are you creating any NT User Accounts? Did you set the FailIfExists attribute to yes? Please check here:
User Element (Util Extension). What is the setting for UpdateIfExists? (if any).
Other Issues: There might be other issues as well as Rob mentions. You can not use the same package code for both release types because a package code by definition identifies a unique file. All kinds of X-Files-like problems occur if you try to "hack" this. Not a fight you want to take on.
Administrative Installation: Why would you want to distribute different setups on CDs these days? Corporations that use your setup will run an administrative installation on your setup extracting all files - which is a much better concept. It is essentially a glorified file-extraction, and it is a built in Windows Installer concept intended to make a network installation point for software - among other things. It essentially extracts all files and translates the Media table to use external source files.
List of Links:
What is the purpose of administrative installation initiated using msiexec /a?
Extract MSI from EXE
Is there any way to create minor upgrade (patch file i.e. .msp) or msi based on the old MSI installer and new MSi installer. we want to give the customer to minor upgraded patch (.msp or .msi0, which contains the changes only.
1) I have created (old) Test.msi, based on the 4 .wxs files. these 4 wxs files helps the installation wizard steps. Below are example.
Welcome.wxs file: where we mentioned just welcome message with reference of our project image
Main.wxs file: which contains the actual script of wxs sourcse file for the compononets and features.
InstallerPath.wxs: Where user can select his installation path
LicenseAgrement.wxs: license aggrement mentione dialog file.
2) I have changed the Product verison number only and modified few of my project files, and added few new files.
3) Then I have created (new) Test.msi, based on those 4 .wxs files.
4) By using these old and new installers, how can I genreate patch (.msp or .msi) for minor upgrade.
If you want to do this the two MSIs then this is a starting point:
http://wixtoolset.org/documentation/manual/v3/patching/patch_building.html
Then there's WiX patching:
http://wixtoolset.org/documentation/manual/v3/patching/wix_patching.html
Or as a variation on the first one, you could create your own .PCP file and run msimsp from the Windows kit as described here:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa367816(v=vs.85).aspx
Just to provide one more link, as an additional information to the last link, PhilDW gave already: Useful, if you want to call the patch generation by an own app/framework for patching. Then you could target the PatchWiz.dll from MS directly without using msimsp.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa370590%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
But MsiMsp is a simpler first entry of course. Basically it's just a shell for this dll.
But: Creating .pcp Files is not everybody's favor... reserved for people who want to go deeper here.
But IF you want it, it is probably safer of doing it with code than manually, once you have understood all the points.
I have an MSI that setups my application. It has a single component and installs only to %PROGRAMFILES% (no shared binaries). Simplified, it looks like this
Msi file, Monday build:
Program.exe (v1.0.0)
ThirdPartyLibrary.dll (v2.0.1)
Now, if I discover a bug in the program caused by my upgrade of the ThirdPartyLibrary dll from v2.0.0 to v2.0.1, and thus revert the reference to v2.0.0, it seems my MSI doesn't automatically replace the file in the installation directory?
Msi file, Tuesday build:
Program.exe (v1.0.0)
ThirdPartyLibrary.dll (v2.0) <- downgraded
What is the best practice here to ensure that the program folder always contains exactly the binaries in my setup? Should I a) wipe everything from the setup directory before copying the new files? Is there an option (in Wix) I can use that makes the msi force an overwrite of all files regardless of version?
What if I remove a file from the setup (a file that would cause errors if present at runtime), then the only way to have a working program after the setup, would be if it deleted all files first?
You can use a msi trick. In the File table in the msi database edit the Version column and enter a higher version, 3.0 for example. This way you will take advantage of the file versioning rules.
I'm learning about Windows-Installer and Wix, and have a number of questions related to how it works:
If a component GUID changes, but the same files are in the component, what happens on a major upgrade? Do the files get replaced?
If a component is removed from a product, what happens to the associated files on a major upgrade? Do the original files get removed on an uninstall?
Am I correct in saying that a major upgrade will replace all files in all components, regardless of whether the assembly version of the file has changed, and that on small updates and minor upgrades, it only replaces a file if the GUID is the same, and the assembly version of the file has been incremented? What if the file doesn't have an assembly version, like an aspx page?
Suppose that a product was deployed on a machine without using an installer. If you then created an installer, with files of the same name in a component as what's in the installed directory, what happens to those files if you tried an installation? Are they replaced?
Am I correct in saying that if I used a tool like heat to create an xml file with all the files in a directory (like for a website), that you'd have to keep the GUIDs the same (manually or with a script), or you'd only be able to do major upgrades?
If a component GUID changes, but the
same files are in the component,
what happens on a major upgrade?
First, the question is whether the old component gets uninstalled. If you don't configure your upgrade to uninstall previous versions of your product, then the component will not be removed (although its files may be overwritten). See also answer to question 2.
Second, the question is whether the new component will be installed. A component is only installed if its keypath is missing. If the keypath is a versioned file, then a lower version also counts as "missing".
Finally, if the new component was marked for installation, and Windows Installer encounters a file with the same name as the one it is trying to install, the File Versioning Rules determine whether the file is replaced or not. For example, a file with a higher version will not be downgraded.
If a component is removed from a
product, what happens to the
associated files on a major upgrade?
Do the original files get removed on
an uninstall?
Unless you put the right entries in the Upgrade table and the InstallExecuteSequence that tells windows installer to remove the old product, the old components will be left alone. See this blog post by Alex Shevchuk for guidance on how to create an installer in wix that removes old versions.
Am I correct in saying that a major
upgrade will replace all files in all
components ...
No. It depends on whether the old component was removed first, whether the new component was installed depending on the keypath, and the file versioning rules.
Suppose that a product was deployed on
a machine without using an installer.
If you then created an installer, with
files of the same name in a component
as what's in the installed directory,
what happens to those files if you
tried an installation?
Again, it depends on whether the components get installed, depending on their keypath, and the file versioning rules.
Am I correct in saying that if I used
a tool like heat to create an xml file
with all the files in a directory
(like for a website), that you'd have
to keep the GUIDs the same (manually
or with a script), or you'd only be
able to do major upgrades?
Correct. The GUID is the identity of a component, so if you would change the GUID there would exist two components (in the old and new version of your product) that installed the same resources to the same target location. And that's a no-no according to MSDN: "Never create two components that install a resource under the same name and target location."
Learn the Component Rules. They're very easy to break and Windows Installer doesn't enforce them. However if you don't follow the rules, then weird strange voodoo happens.
Easy solution, stick with one file per component and use heat with compile time GUID generation (outputs with Guid="*" uses a stable algorithm, it's not random). Having heat generate GUIDs is random, but GUIDs generated by candle at compile time will be stable (based on filename + path hash or something from memory)
If windows installer finds a file already on disk during install, it will increment the reference count for that file assuming it's a "shared" file. Files are only removed from disk once the reference count returns to zero so if a file already existed, the count may never return to zero and you can get files left lying around even after uninstalling.