Should each installed file be a separate component?
Tony
understand why but probably due to COM Registry requirements) but what
about other types of files?
In particular, if component contains multiple files how does one
handle adding and removing files from the component when it comes to
small updates and minor upgrades?
For example, if component is transitive and has a condition, and if it
contains just one file, handling file removal with new patches is as
easy as changing the condition truth value.
But what if component contains several files? It seems that it is then
impossible to handle the removal of individual files inside that
component because transitivity and condition are defined per
component.
Therefore, if one wants a control over each individual installed file,
regarding possible file removal in future releases, it seems that each
file should be a separate component and each component should contain
just one file.
Sebastian Brand
You got it right. MSI defines component as the smallest part of an
installation. If you have two files in a component, they are always
stuck together. To remove only a part of a component, you must remove
the whole component and re-install a new component with the remaining
files.
Best regards,
Sebastian Brand
Instyler Software - http://www.instyler.com
Owen Gilmore
That would be burdensome because you're talking about unversioned
files. Why create a component for each one? Unnecessary...besides
that file versioning rules would not work on non-executable files
because they're not versioned, which removes any advantage to having
each file in its own component.
Owen
Dennis Bareis
On Wed, 28 May 2008 17:33:20 -0700 (PDT), Owen Gilmore <aogi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Why create a component for each one? Unnecessary...besides
>that file versioning rules would not work on non-executable files
>because they're not versioned, which removes any advantage to having
>each file in its own component.
>
>Owen
Windows Installer is not without "features", I think that any file (versioned or not)
that can be held in use by your application (whether you stop it or not during install/uninstall)
should be in its own component so Windows Installer can recover (or hide the problem if you like)
by advertising.
My 2 cents worth,
Dennis
Dennis Bareis [Microsoft MVP] (dba...@KillSpam.gmail.com)
http://dennisbareis.com/
Freeware Windows Installer creation tool (+ "ORCA automation"):
http://makemsi.dennisbareis.com/