Peter, Thanks you for your reply.
This does seem very promising; I'll let you know how we get on with it. Cheers, Liam -----Original Message----- From: Peter Shirtcliffe [mailto:pshirtcli...@sdl.com] Sent: 17 February 2011 10:55 To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset. Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Patching Using Purely Wix Would creating a pure Wix patch from administrative installations work for you ? It's what we do here. This gives you an idea of the process. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/pmarcu/archive/2008/05/30/patching-something-you-did n t-build-with-wix-using-wix-.aspx -----Original Message----- From: Liam Flanagan [mailto:l...@dyalog.com] Sent: 16 February 2011 12:46 To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: [WiX-users] Patching Using Purely Wix Hello All, I've been wondering if it's possible to create minor patches using the "purely wix" method, however only using the baseline and QFE MSI packages instead of requiring the original source files and structure that the MSIs were built from. I want have the benefits of purely wix patching (i.e. referencing wix components etc) however not the complexity of having build output snapshots that have a large quantities of files and file structures, instead simply the released MSIs. The table in this msdn blog ( http://blogs.msdn.com/b/heaths/archive/2010/08/24/comparison-of-patchwiz-and -wix-v3-patch-build.aspx ) implies that these should be possible; although I guess not all at the same time. (CF: ticks in the "Ignore certain other resource types to be upgraded by the patch (ex: registry values, components, etc.)" and "Can automatically extract compressed files when creating transforms." Boxes) A little background into what I've tried so far: . Using the wixpdb files with torch to create the transform between the two versions appears to require the original msi build structure when creating the patch . Using torch on the msi files as standard appears to create a binary mst file, I presume this is for use with PatchWiz as Wix tools don't seem to like this at all . If whilst using torch on the msi files you specify you want an xml output (wixout) you appear to get a file very similar to that of the output when using torch on the wixpdb files, however you appear to lose all information about wix structures (wix components/component groups etc). Therefore if I try to specify them in the patch.wxs, pyro doesn't understand what differences you're actually trying to bring through in the patch. Furthermore on this, this fairly dated blog post ( http://blogs.msdn.com/b/pmarcu/archive/2007/04/27/building-a-patch-using-wix -v3-0.aspx ) implies that when creating the original msi files creating an interim wixmsi and using light to convert that into an MSI rather than just lighting the wixobj may change the game a bit; however I couldn't get this to work. The produced MSI files whilst having different md5sums appeared identical in Orca and furthermore produced identical wixout files via torch. Is what I'm hoping for achievable? Thanks, Liam ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users SDL PLC confidential, all rights reserved. If you are not the intended recipient of this mail SDL requests and requires that you delete it without acting upon or copying any of its contents, and we further request that you advise us. SDL PLC is a public limited company registered in England and Wales. Registered number: 02675207. Registered address: Globe House, Clivemont Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire SL6 7DY, UK. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
