I've got a relatively simple project that is under source control (svn), and I wanted to create an installer. I know that I could (should) use WiX, but as I'm new to creating installers I thought it'd be easier to just use the built-in Visual Studio (2010) Setup and Deployment Wizard.
Unfortunately, it seems that files including external (non-project maintained) documentation, configuration files, and "Content" files are added with absolute paths. This, of course, is suboptimal. I searched the web, but found only the same question, without an answer. Another stackoverflow user seems to have asked a similar question, but the only answer, which suggests ClickOnce, seems off-base (I'd like to have an MSI that I distribute not a web-based installation).
Does anyone know how (or whether) this can be fixed?
With VS2005, sometimes the paths stored in the vdproj file were absolutes, and sometimes relatives. In my case, it seemed to be related to whether the files were accessed via the canonical path or not. Here's a concrete example:
Source is on C:\Views\builddir, open solution C:\Views\builddir\solution.sln and add files from C:\Views\builddir\.. and VS2005 would add relative paths into the vdproj file. However, if you map that builddir to a letter drive, for example, make a subst from C:\Views\builddir to s:, open the solution via S:\solution.sln, and then add files by navigating to S:\.., VS2005 would insert absolute paths into the vdproj files. Whether VS2005 displayed paths as absolutes or relatives had no relation to what it stored in the vdproj files.
So, it may well be that the problem comes down to what path you're using to open that solution.. opening \\server\shareddir\solution.sln might get different behavior than mapping \\server\shareddir to W: and opening w:\solution.sln.
You can always add the files, then use a text editor (e.g. notepad) to change the absolute paths in the vdproj file to relative ones. You'll be fine until you change that project again.
MS doesn't seem to really fix minor bugs like this so much as rewrite the code to introduce an entirely different set of bugs, so VS2010 might still act this way.
FYI, why would one want to map an absolute path to your builddir? It was a holdover from the bad old days when VS didn't do anything correct with relative paths.
As tzerb mentioned, the main source of confusion might be that paths show up as absolute under the property window inside VS, but when you look into the actual VDPROJ file you should see the paths show up as relative. However, as patbob mentioned, I believe the paths ARE stored as absolute when they come from a different letter drive.
It might be easier now but when you start bumping into the limitations of the tool it's going to get real hard. Let's not even talk about the bad practices it will encourage which could end up being real hard for the poor end user installing your product. You've got Visual Studio 2010 so InstallShield LE ( free ) would be a better choice.
Otherwise, to answer your question, it will only use absolute paths if it can't caculate a relative path. ( for example c:\foo\foo.vdproj consuming d:\foo.txt consuming c:\test\foo.txt should automatically be ....\test\foo.txt )
BTW, if you decide to check out WiX and want some "easy" check out my IsWiX project on CodePlex. I'm trying to bridge the feature gap between InstallShield and WiX.
Related
I'm looking into Visual Studio 2019 Class Designer to draw a diagram including mulitple classes in a package. I've noticed the only export format is Image and the .cd xml format contains absolute paths to the c++ class header files.
I've attempted to manually tweak the paths so they are relative and I now when I open a .cd file I get this:
I did sucessully move a .cd file from one computer to another by replacing the absolute paths prefixes, but it felt like a hacky workaround. I was hoping I can simply use relative paths.
Is there way to tweak the .xml so it's editable again ?
(I've tried undoing the changes, but that didn't solve the problem and I'm suspecting the UUIDs might have something to do with it, maybe?)
What's the recommended way of sharing a Visual Studio C++ class diagram for editing within a team ?
In my experience using relative paths isn't supported and (even absolute paths barely).
The only workaround I could think of is using a script to run wihin Visual Studio to run before openning the diagram on a new machine to detect the source code folder and alter the absolute paths accordingly.
In practice, this would be a nightmare under version control and using a completely separate diagramming tool and manually drawing the diagram is unfortunately the reality of the situation.
(I look forward to an alternative tool that can easily generate a class diagram that can be shared/edited within a team).
I'm currently trying to make a download/install file for a CD, and I've never done this or written any type of coding before so I'm somewhat at a loss. When we last created an installer package (I wasn't employed yet) we used InstalShield, but that was decades ago, and we can't afford the 500$+ price to get it again.
Currently I'm trying to work off the old download package we have. There is the Windows Installer Package (made by InstalShield) called CD Cat v6.msi, and then another file called CDcatv6.exe (which launches a window for the customer to browse options) and then a file called Data.cab which has all the files for the entire catalog in it.
I was thinking perhaps I can just replace a lot of those files with the current information. Replace the CDcatv6.exe file with my v7.exe file (but change the name so its CDcatv6.exe) and then replace all the files in the Data.cab file with the current ones. But that's turning out to be a huge issue.
I did a bit of searching to learn what a .cab file was, and downloaded the Cab File Maker 2.0 (after quite a bit of searching!). I'm having a difficult time using it though, as it wants all the files that I put in it to make the .cab to be in .ddf format. I have no idea what that is, much less how to make it. I tried using 'save as' to do it, but since all the files I need are PDF's there's no option for it and I cant export the files to it either.
I tried looking at other ways that people made Cab files, but I don't know many of the file types or programs their talking about. I'm not a programmer by any means, but I have to learn quick I guess, so any information on how to do this will help greatly. Is it even possible to replace all the files seamlessly and have it work properly? Or is there an easier way to create a fill that the customer can click on and have it download to their desktop?
I don't think simple editing of Data.cab will work. There is installer logic stored in other InstallShield files. It could work if and only if the file set is the same, I mean no files changed its names, no new files added, no new registry entries required etc.
To create a CAB file, use cabarc.exe from Microsoft Windows SDK.
Creating a brand new installer may be a better option. Look at this tools for creating installers:
Advanced Installer
NSIS
WiX toolset (with tutorial)
You best solution is to use dark.exe (part of the WiX toolset).
This will enable to you decompile the MSI and CAB files, edit the installer source as XML and then recompile this into a new executable. Unfortunately this route is not for the faint of heart and what you save on price will cost you in time.
I'm curious how your company created an MSI decades ago, but Sasha is right about time and money trade-offs. However if you're working with Visual Studio, you might try the InstallShield Limited Edition for Visual Studio. It may have enough capabilities to suit your needs.
Thanks for pointing to CABARC, that looks exactly what i was looking for, due to information on:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/bb417343(v=msdn.10)?redirectedfrom=MSDN#top
That make me look how to download it, but i found this post:
Where can I get the cabarc utility?
Where it explains CABARC may be obsolete and there is another utility called MAKECAB that cames with Windows 11, i had try it at command line and it is there.
Thanks a lot.
This is not a work-stopper in any way, but I thought I should ask anyway because it is a little annoying. Let's say I create a new project and start putting source files in a directory other than the default that shows up the first time. Afterwords, whenever I open the project, I have to navigate to the source directory once during that session. Like I said, not a big deal (but if solvable, then it's icing on the cake). Quite a few times I absentmindedly put the source file in the default directory and end up committing that file to the SVN and if I am lucky, going through all the files, removing them, then adding them again.
So my question is, is there any way to specify the default source directory on a per project basis?
I have run into the same nuisance. I like to put the public interface header files for a library in a separate directory, but end up with file directory typos because I forget to navigate to the correct directory when saving a new file. Unfortunately, Visual Studio does not offer a setting to change the default directory for new C++ source files.
I had the same problem when I started using build systems (CMake, Premake) which requires me to keep my project files separate from my source files, which hampered my workflow.
Although changing the default source directory seems impossible, if you aren't afraid to spend money, the workaround I found was to use the Visual Assist extension.
You can bind a shortcut of your choise to the Create File command which creates
a new file relative to the directory or your open file.
I'd also recommend to base one's workflow around the wonderful
Create from Usage command (which I think greatly boosts
productivity) which almost eliminates the need to manually create files.
The extension is great, albeit a bit costly. I would love to see Microsoft incorporate these features directly in the IDE eventually as they are found vanilla in a lot of other IDEs e.g. Eclipse, Intellij.
There might be some free extensions available that does the same thing, but I haven't found any.
Changing the Default Project Folder may help. This page demonstrates how to change the default for Visual Studio 2005, and it should be the same for later versions.
Does anyone have a method to overcome the 260 character limit of the MSBuild tool for building Visual Studio projects and solutions from the command line? I'm trying to get the build automated using CruiseControl (CruiseControl.NET isn't an option, so I'm trying to tie it into normal ant scripts) and I keep on running into problems with the length of the paths. To clarify, the problem is in the length of paths of projects referenced in the solution file, as the tool doesn't collapse paths down properly :(
I've also tried using DevEnv which sometimes works and sometimes throws an exception, which isn't good for an automated build on a separate machine. So please don't suggest using this as a replacement.
And to top it all, the project builds fine when using Visual Studio through the normal IDE.
It seems that it is limitation of the MSBuild. We had the same problem, and in the end, we had to get paths shortened, because did not find any other solution that worked properly.
The SUBST command stills seems to exist so remapping the root of your build folder to a drive letter may save some characters if Judah Himango's solution is no good.
I solved similar issue by adjusting CSPROJ-file:
<BaseIntermediateOutputPath>$([System.IO.Path]::GetFullPath('$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\..\..\..\Intermediate\$(AssemblyName)_$(ProjectGuid)\'))</BaseIntermediateOutputPath>
As the result during compilation CSC.EXE receives full path instead of relative one.
Thanks to harrydev for clue on how CSC.EXE operates with the paths.
There are two kinds of long path problems relevant to build. One is paths that aren't really too long, but have lots of "..\" in them. Typically, these are references' HintPath values. MSBuild should normalize these paths down to below the max limit, so that they work.
The other kind of path is just plain too long. Sorry, but these just won't work. After looking at it a fair bit, the problem is that there just isn't sufficient API support for long paths. The BCL team (see their blog) had similar problems. Only some of the Win32 API's support the \?\ format. Arbitrary build tools, and probably 98% of apps out there, don't; and worse would probably behave badly (think of all the buffers sized for MAX_PATH).
We came to the conclusion that until there's a big ecosystem effort to make long paths work, or Windows comes up with some ingenious way to make them work anyway (like the short paths mangling?) long paths just aren't possible for MSBuild to support. Workarounds include subst, as you found; but if your tree just is simply too deep, your only options are to build it in fragments, or to shorten the folder names. Sorry.
Dan/MSBuild
I found the problem to be that when the C# compiler (csc.exe) is called it uses the projects directory path PROJECTDIRECTORY together with the output path OUTPUTPATH by simply appending them as:
PROJECTDIRECTORY+OUTPUTPATH
However, if the OUTPUTPATH is relative i.e. "..\..\Build\ProjectName\AnyCPU_Debug_Bin\" and the project directory is pretty long then the total length is longer than 259 characters since the path will be:
PROJECTPATH+"..\..\Build\ProjectName\AnyCPU_Debug_Bin\"
instead of an absolute path.
If csc.exe would make an absolute path before calling Win32 functions this would work. Since in our case the absolute path length is less than 160 characters.
For some reason the call to csc.exe from visual studio is then different from MSBuild than it is from visual studio. Do not know why.
In any case, the problem can be resolved by changing either or both PROJECTDIRECTORY and/or OUTPUTPATH paths.
Have you tried DOS paths? Or the \\?\ prefix? The .NET BCL team blog has more info.
If the path length is 260, then there is warning resolving reference, for 259 or 261 of this error does not occur. I think there is msbuild bug.
I know there is already an accepted answer, but I had a different problem while using msbuild that gave me the same error output, and led me on a circular wild-goose chase. So, for future googlers, here goes:
We have a batch file that calls msbuild, but as the build machine can build for multiple versions of Visual Studio, each batch file calls vcvarsall.bat before it runs msbuild. This has the nasty side effect of stuffing the path completely full of the same thing over and over again. When it fills up, you get the error shown in the question above: The input line is too long. A simple Google search could make you think your paths are suddenly too long for msbuild.
In my case, it was as simple as killing the session of cmd.exe and restarting, as this reverted the environment variables to their native state.
I'm trying to build a small VS 2005 solution I've just checked out of source control, and I'm getting this easy to understand error:
...\AssemblyInfo.cs' could not be
opened ('The system cannot find the
file specified. ') (The file is fairly
obviously missing)
Because this file's automatically generated, I've never paid it much heed before, and in VS 2003 (which I still work with day to day - pity me) it never seems to matter if it's missing.
So 2 questions:
1. How can I get VS 2005 to regenerate the file.
2. Could anyone explain to me in a couple of sentences what the assembly info file is all about, why it's generated, why it's a good idea to have an automatically generated file critical to my solution building etc etc.
Thanks - Andrew.
Edit: OK, I've googling some more, and it's probably significant that this is in an Nunit Test Project.
Update: Deleting the reference in solution explorer an Alex suggested did the trick, and the project now builds, but I'm not entirely happy with that as a solution. If the file is so unimportant, why is it generated in the first place? And if the file does perform a vital task, what am I missing out on by just deleting it?
Also, is it even possible to get it back? Either by getting VS to regenerate it, or by manually hacking one up (possibly using another as a template)?
This file contains assembly-wide settings like assembly version, name, etc. It is automatically generated when you change those settings using properties pages of the project. You should have this file in the project with sort of transparent icon (I think it is in resource folder or something like this by default). Locate it in the project tree and delete it. Visual studio will stop looking for it during build.
PS: assuming the path starts with .. and not ... then this file should be located one folder up from the project in the source control. So you can try looking there.