2 replies to this topic

[duncanl]

What I'm trying to do is probably not possible:

We ship a base.msi and an exe that will allow the customers to customise a copy of the base.msi for their own distribution - creates cabs to embed into the copy msi, updates the tables, tidies the package so its validates etc

Occasionally our company needs to send out fixes to existing product files and these updated files need to be included in the base.msi.

Because of download restrictions I can't ship a replacement base.msi

At our own office we can create the two packages and generate a mst or a msp for distribution that could update the base.msi with the changes.

However it seems that a mst will only update the tables, but can't include the files, and that a msp will only update an existing installed product or an administration install, not a standard msi package.

I could use the exe to update the base.msi (create a customised msi and copy back over the "base.msi") but if there is a cleaner way I'd rather do that.

But if its not possible, can someone set me straight so I'm not bashing my head against a brick wall

any comments?

duncan

[mandy]

I may be missing something, but why wouldn't you just create an administrative installation image by patching the original MSI?

Otherwise, you could supply the patch and ask the customer to use the following command line for all installations (new or existing):

msiexec /i package.msi PATCH=package.msp

[duncanl]

Thanks for the reply but I think what I want to do is impossible, at least in a simple way.

I want to "patch" a compressed msi package, not an administrative installation - because if I do that I'd have to compress it all back in to the single msi package anyway, for the custom packages to use as a base package.

I think really I need a mst that includes files, which is a no-go.


msiexec /i package.msi PATCH=package.msp might be a solution but probably not in this situation as I want / need to patch the base.msi from which package.msi devived from, not the final shipped package.msi. If the msp is applied to the package.msi then it is possible that it might overwrite their customised files

And the users will probably not running from command-line - regardless if we tell them too

There might be something I can do with the above, but I think I'm stuck with using the shipped exe to create a new custom package that has the new files correctly packed in, and then overwriting the original base package.

But thanks for the quick response and its given me an idea to look at and at least has saved some head-bashing... I'll post back if I have a wacky brainwave.

ta

duncan

Edited by duncanl, 17 February 2005 - 09:41.