Binary file difference tools that attempt to find out if there are meaningful differences between binaries are more difficult than may appear at first glance. I worked with a company that ultimately gave their tool up because of the difficulties. If my recollection is correct, minor changes in compilers can produce code that is functionally identical from one code file to the next, but the binary files are not the same. Also there are dates in files that will change. It turned out to be easier to have developers just say which files actually had functional differences, even though the build system rebuilds everything to have higher versiuons. Merge modules also get built as a unit, and even if only one binary has changed all the content gets a version bump because that's what the build system did. The patch process has a way to ignore files that are missing when generating a patch from admin images (see IgnoreMissingSrcFiles in PCP file) so it turned out to be easier to just supply the binaries that were functionally different, with their higher files versions of course. --------------- Phil Wilson
On Thu, Jun 25, 2015 at 6:50 AM, Rob Mensching <r...@firegiant.com> wrote: > IIRC, there is a feature request open to do "smarter" binary diffing. If not, > seems like a reasonable feature request to open. > > In either case, perhaps you would like to implement this feature? If not, you > will be waiting for someone else to do so. > > _______________________________________________________________ > FireGiant | Dedicated support for the WiX toolset | > http://www.firegiant.com/ > > -----Original Message----- > From: Jakob Ziegler [mailto:subscr...@gmail.com] > Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2015 12:31 AM > To: General discussion about the WiX toolset. > Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Why does a patch build include same versioned dlls? > > Hi > > thanks for the answers, but they unfortunately don't answer my question. > > Is there a reason/rationale behind this patch creation behavior? > Or did the patch appliance rules change at some point while the patch > creation logic was left untouched? > > Cheers > Jakob > > ps: apart from specifying which components to include in a patch, we > automated that by using the original files to create the updated installer, > and just replace the libs of which we touched the code (we mustn't forget to > set a higher file version, of course). It takes responsibility from the devs > to know about components and installer/patching etc. Most don't care, > unfortunately. > > Still, it looks to me as if we are going to great lengths to get a patch > built in a way so that it doesn't carry already deployed libraries, which > differ only by the teeniest amount on the binary lvl. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Monitor 25 network devices or servers for free with OpManager! > OpManager is web-based network management software that monitors > network devices and physical & virtual servers, alerts via email & sms > for fault. Monitor 25 devices for free with no restriction. Download now > http://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/clk/292181274;119417398;o > _______________________________________________ > WiX-users mailing list > WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Monitor 25 network devices or servers for free with OpManager! OpManager is web-based network management software that monitors network devices and physical & virtual servers, alerts via email & sms for fault. Monitor 25 devices for free with no restriction. Download now http://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/clk/292181274;119417398;o _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
