I use merge modules extensively. In fact, the program to be installed is VERY big (600 Mo) and have a lot of small files (more than 1000).
So I split all these files into smaller packages, the merge modules. And then I build up my modules.
Finally I build the final project which contains all my separate modules. And the merging modules process lasts hours !!
So instead of using merge modules, I've tried external msi packages : you don't have to build them each time you build the project, and the package build time is smaller than the correponding merging process time.
And it works fine.
Except two points :
- it seems that an external msi package cannot be linked to a component nor a feature. And this is a problem : you have to create an 'empty' feature, linked with nothing, and then write a custom action which installs the msi file (only when the empty feature is selected). It's quite convoluted, no ?
- the second and BIG problem is that, according to what I understand from Micrsoft MSI Doc. an external package is not involved in the global file costing process. So you miss the outofspace warning cause you've included a msi package. And in my cas the external packages are VERY big.
So, I feel sad. On one hand it's #### slooooow but effective. On the other hand, it's smart but loosy.
If anyone has an idea...
Regards,
Bertrand.
(Edited by Bertrand at 7:12 pm on Feb. 12, 2001)