[WiX-users] Short Filenames
I feel like this subject has surely been discussed into the ground on this forum, but I can't find anything with my searches. I found a few blogs (http://installing.blogspot.com/2006/02/auto-generation-of-short-file-an d.html, for one) that related to it, but didn't quite answer my question. Perhaps someone can point me to a complete discussion on this if that's easier than re-hashing this. 1. Why does MSI still require short names to be provided? It is my understanding that all OSes since Windows 95 have supported them. 2. What are the tradeoffs between using WiX 3.0's automatic-yet-very-cryptic short names vs. me supplying hand-pick-somewhat-cryptic short names? My applications require either Windows 2000 or newer or Windows 98 or newer, depending on the application. However, both requirements guarantee long filename support, do they not? Is this just so that users can reference the short filenames in scripts, etc. without worrying about them changing? Thanks for any thoughts. Quinton Tormanen Software Engineer Delta Computer Systems, Inc. http://www.deltamotion.com http://www.deltamotion.com/ -- ___ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
Re: [WiX-users] Short Filenames
Quinton Tormanen wrote: 1. Why does MSI still require short names to be provided? It is my understanding that all OSes since Windows 95 have supported them. It's a legacy thing that's just been carried on. In a discussion a while back someone managed to come up with a system that could feasibly use short file names. It might have been something like a Novell share. Or something, I don't remember really. But for the vast majority of us it's just an annoying legacy thing. I'm sure someone will correct me soon enough though. 2. What are the tradeoffs between using WiX 3.0's automatic-yet-very-cryptic short names vs. me supplying hand-pick-somewhat-cryptic short names? Option 1 requires that you have to trust that the WiX guys got it right. Option 2 requires a tedious amount of work which isn't really required. You're probably safe with option 1 because the WiX guys were severely paranoid (in a good way) about making any mistakes in it, and nothing really uses the SFN anyway. Rob -- ___ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
Re: [WiX-users] Short Filenames
1. Pretty much right. There are only two good reasons I've heard for MSI still requiring short names, Novell file shares and that's just the way the Windows Installer works. I've found inertia has a huge play in Windows Installer decisions. The third reason I've heard is that the user can force your application to install with short file names... but I expect pretty much every app would break if someone did that. shrug/ 2. Not as long as the short file names are unique in a directory and stable. Different things changing messes up patching and minor upgrades. So the names generated by WiX are designed to be unique and stable and, unfortunately, fugly. Rob Hamflett wrote: Quinton Tormanen wrote: 1. Why does MSI still require short names to be provided? It is my understanding that all OSes since Windows 95 have supported them. It's a legacy thing that's just been carried on. In a discussion a while back someone managed to come up with a system that could feasibly use short file names. It might have been something like a Novell share. Or something, I don't remember really. But for the vast majority of us it's just an annoying legacy thing. I'm sure someone will correct me soon enough though. 2. What are the tradeoffs between using WiX 3.0's automatic-yet-very-cryptic short names vs. me supplying hand-pick-somewhat-cryptic short names? Option 1 requires that you have to trust that the WiX guys got it right. Option 2 requires a tedious amount of work which isn't really required. You're probably safe with option 1 because the WiX guys were severely paranoid (in a good way) about making any mistakes in it, and nothing really uses the SFN anyway. Rob -- ___ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users -- ___ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
