How can I check free space during a NullSoft silent install? - windows

Question

In silent install mode the user is not asked about the installation target with the PageEx directory, and therefore the functions DirVerify and GetInstDirError are never called.
This is also applicable to installs that hardcode the installation target (a bad idea) for the same reason as above: the PageEx directory is never invoked.

Answer 1

Your sample code is ok, but calling ${DriveSpace} on Win9x could fail. I also removed the need to specify the section id's
!define APPNAME "CalcEnoughSpace"
name "${APPNAME}"
outfile "$%temp%\${APPNAME}.exe"
ShowInstDetails show
RequestExecutionLevel user
installdir "$Temp"
AllowRootDirInstall true
!include Sections.nsh
!include LogicLib.nsh
Function .onInit
push $instdir
call VerifyFreeSpace
pop $0
${If} $0 < 1
MessageBox mb_iconstop "Not enough free space!"
${EndIf}
FunctionEnd
page instfiles
Section !a
AddSize 10000
SectionEnd
Section /o b
AddSize 10000
SectionEnd
SectionGroup grp
Section c
AddSize 10000
SectionEnd
SectionGroupEnd
Function VerifyFreeSpace
System::Store s
pop $0 ;path to check
Push 0 ;default to no
System::Call 'kernel32::GetDiskFreeSpaceEx(tr0,*l.r1,*l,*l)i.r2'
${If} $2 < 1
StrCpy $0 $0 3
System::Call 'kernel32::GetDiskFreeSpace(tr0,*i.r1,*i.r2,*i.r3,*i)i.r4'
IntCmpU $4 0 ret
IntOp $1 $1 * $2
System::Int64Op $1 * $3
pop $1
${EndIf}
System::Int64Op $1 / 1024 ;to kb
pop $1
StrCpy $4 0 ;size
StrCpy $2 0 ;section idx
loop:
ClearErrors
SectionGetFlags $2 $3
IfErrors testspace
IntOp $3 $3 & ${SF_SELECTED}
${If} $3 <> 0
SectionGetSize $2 $3
IntOp $4 $4 + $3
${EndIf}
IntOp $2 $2 + 1
goto loop
testspace:
pop $2 ;throw away default return value
System::Int64Op $1 > $4
ret:
System::Store l
FunctionEnd
I only did limited testing, hopefully there are no bugs :)

Answer 2

I wrote a function called CheckFreeSpace in NSIS to do this. Unfortunately it has the following limitations:
To compute the size of all the sections in your installation, you have to modify CheckFreeSpace to add each section, by knowing each variable that each section id was written into. I can't find a way of iterating over all sections that will be installed using NSIS.
Installation drive must be computed because ${DriveSpace} requires a drive letter, not a path to an arbitrary directory. The drive letter string is computed with StrCpy $instdrive $INSTDIR 3. If the $INSTDIR variable is a relative path or does not begin with a string such as C:\, this will fail.
If the installation cannot continue it produces a MessageBox. You can suppress the MessageBox by adding /SD IDOK at the end of the statement, but then the user is not informed of the installation failure: I can't find a way to emit to stdout from NSIS. Perhaps the return code from the installer is enough?
If the disk free space is really low (like 10kb), the installer won't run at all; it doesn't have space to unpack its temporary DLL's into the \tmp directory.
Also, in my implementation below, CheckFreeSpace has a hardcoded value for the space free after installation. Obviously that can be parameterized.
Here it is within a sample installer:
!include FileFunc.nsh
!insertmacro DriveSpace
Name "CheckFreeSpace"
OutFile "C:\CheckFreeSpace.exe"
InstallDir C:\tmp\checkfreespace
Page instfiles
Section "install_section" install_section_id
Call CheckFreeSpace
CreateDirectory $INSTDIR
SetOutPath $INSTDIR
File "C:\installme.bat"
WriteUninstaller "$INSTDIR\Uninstall.exe"
DetailPrint "Installation Successful."
SectionEnd
Section "Uninstall"
RMDIR /r "$INSTDIR"
SectionEnd
Function CheckFreeSpace
var /GLOBAL installsize
var /GLOBAL adjustedinstallsize
var /GLOBAL freespace
var /GLOBAL instdrive
; Verify that we have sufficient space for the install
; SectionGetSize returns the size of each section in kilobyte.
SectionGetSize ${install_section_id} $installsize
; Adjust the required install size by 10mb, as a minimum amount
; of free space left after installation.
IntOp $adjustedinstallsize $installsize + 10240
; Compute the drive that is the installation target; the
; ${DriveSpace} macro will not accept a path, it must be a drive.
StrCpy $instdrive $INSTDIR 3
; Compute drive space free in kilobyte
${DriveSpace} $instdrive "/D=F /S=K" $freespace
DetailPrint "Determined installer needs $adjustedinstallsize kb ($installsize kb) while $freespace kb is free"
IntCmp $adjustedinstallsize $freespace spaceok spaceok
MessageBox MB_OK|MB_ICONSTOP "Insufficient space for installation. Please free space for installation directory $INSTDIR and try again."
DetailPrint "Insufficient space for installation. Installer needs $adjustedinstallsize kb, but freespace is only $freespace kb."
Abort "Insufficient space for installation."
spaceok:
DetailPrint "Installation target space is sufficient"
FunctionEnd

Answer 3

Do you have a sample script for silent install?