Extracting files from merge module - installation

Question

All I want is a command-line tool that can extract files from a merge module (.msm) onto disk. Said differently, I want the same "administrative install" functionality that is possible for an MSI:
msiexec /a myProduct.msi TARGETDIR="C:\myInstallation" /qn
The above only works on an msi (near as I can tell). So to get the same effect for a merge module, I'm trying msidb.exe and orca.exe The documentation for orca states:
Many merge module options can be
specified from the command line...
Extracting Files from a Merge Module
Orca supports three different methods
for extracting files contained in a
merge module. Orca can extract the
individual CAB file, extract the files
into a module tree and extract the
files into a source image once it has
been merged into a target database...
Extracting Files
To extract the individual files from a
merge module, use the
... -x ... option on the
command line, where is the
desired path to the new directory
tree.
The specified path is used as the root
path for the extracted files. All
files are extracted from the CAB file
embedded in the module and placed in
the specified path. The directory
layout for the extracted files is
based on the directory tree of the
merge module.
It sounds like what I need. But when I try it, orca simply opens up an editor (with info on the msm I specified) and then does nothing. I've tried a variety of command lines, usually starting with this:
orca -x theDirectory theModule.msm
I use "theDirectory" as whatever empty folder I want. Like I said - it didn't do anything.
Then I tried msidb, where a couple of attempts I've made look like this:
msidb -d theModule.msm -w {storage}
msidb -d theModule.msm -x MergeModule.CABinet
In the first case, I don't know what to put for {storage}. In the second case, it turns out that the literal string "MergeModule.CABinet" is necessary (it is a reserved name). However, the extracted cabinet does not preserve the file hierarchy or "normal" file names; so I can't use it for my purposes.
Can someone explain what I'm doing wrong with the command line options? Is there any other tool that can do this?

Answer 1

You can use the decompiler tool included with WiX (called Dark) to decompile the merge module and extract the files:
dark.exe myMergeModule.msm -x "path_to_extracted_files"
The files will get extraced to the path specified in the -x parameter.
Note: The files will get extracted using the names specified in the File table of the installation database, which may not actually be the file names used when the files actually get installed. If you need extract the files using the actual file names, see my other answer to this question: Extracting files from merge module

Answer 2

I just had to do this by creating a blank msi and then use Orca to attempt to merge the module into my msi and then extract the files.
Create a blank .msi. I used WiX 3.6 to create the .msi and below is the minimal source. I named it "blank.msi".
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi">
<Product Id="*" Name="blank" Language="1033" Version="1.0.0.0" Manufacturer="blank" UpgradeCode="298878d0-5e7b-4b2e-84f9-45bb66541b10">
<Package InstallerVersion="200" Compressed="yes" InstallScope="perMachine" />
<MediaTemplate />
<Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
<Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder"/>
</Directory>
<ComponentGroup Id="ProductComponents" Directory="ProgramFilesFolder" />
<Feature Id="ProductFeature" Title="blank" Level="1">
<ComponentGroupRef Id="ProductComponents" />
</Feature>
</Product>
</Wix>
Use Orca to extract the files from the merge module.
orca -m "myModule.msm" -f ProductFeature -x .\xdir blank.msi
The files will be extracted to the directory specified by the -x parameter (in this case .\xdir).
Note that the value for the -f parameter "ProductFeature" matches the name of the feature specified in msi file above.

Answer 3

The DeploymentToolsFoundation class library in WiX, has an InstallPackage class with an ExtractFiles() method that should do just what you want, but fails for Merge Modules. This appears to be a bug.
The following PowerShell script, which uses DTF to access the CAB in the mergemodule, should do what you want. Apologies if the scripting is a bit wonky, I'm new to PowerShell.
[Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFrom("[InsertPath]\Microsoft.Deployment.WindowsInstaller.dll")
function ExtractMSM([string]$file, [string]$targetDir)
{
write-host "Extracting files from merge module: "$file
if(![IO.Directory]::Exists($targetDir)) { new-item -type directory -path $targetDir }
$cabFile = join-path $targetDir "temp.cab"
if([IO.File]::Exists($cabFile)) { remove-item $cabFile }
$db = new-object Microsoft.Deployment.WindowsInstaller.DataBase($file, [Microsoft.Deployment.WindowsInstaller.DataBaseOpenMode]::ReadOnly)
$view = $db.OpenView("SELECT `Name`,`Data` FROM _Streams WHERE `Name`= 'MergeModule.CABinet'")
$view.Execute()
$record = $view.Fetch()
$record.GetStream(2, $cabFile)
$view.Dispose()
expand -F:* $cabFile $targetDir
remove-item $cabFile
$extractedFiles = get-childitem $targetDir
$hashFiles = #{}
foreach($extracted in $extractedFiles)
{
try
{
$longName = $db.ExecuteScalar("SELECT `FileName` FROM `File` WHERE `File`='{0}'", $extracted.Name)
}
catch
{
write-host "$($extracted.Name) is not in the MSM file"
}
if($longName)
{
$longName = $LongName.SubString($LongName.IndexOf("|") + 1)
Write-host $longName
#There are duplicates in the
if($hashFiles.Contains($longName))
{
write-host "Removing duplicate of $longName"
remove-item $extracted.FullName
}
else
{
write-host "Rename $($extracted.Name) to $longName"
$hashFiles[$longName] = $extracted
$targetFilePath = join-path $targetDir $longName
if([IO.File]::Exists($targetFilePath)) {remove-item $targetFilePath}
rename-item $extracted.FullName -NewName $longName
}
}
}
$db.Dispose()
}

Answer 4

I had a similar problem, but I went at it from a different direction.
I installed InstallSheild Express that came with an earlier version of Visual Studio, created a new project, but I only added the MSM file that I required.
After compiling and running my new install I was able to retrieve the files that the MSM file contained.

Answer 5

MSI2XML