Execute an MSI within an MSI

[David Hernández Díez]

Hello,

 

I am wondering if it is possible to execute an MSI within the MSI that I create using Wix.

 

I need to do it because a provider delivers me an MSI to install part of a solution and I need to bundle everything within an MSI.

 

Thanks,

David

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[Sunkesula, Srivardhan]

As far as I know, we cannot call an MSI inside an other MSI.
Anyone Correct me if I'm wrong.

What we can do is generate wxs from the msi(reverse engineering), which we need inside our msi.
Then generate an MSI including those wxs.

Thanks &Regards,
Srivardhan.
 

-----Original Message-----
From: David Hernández Díez [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Friday, July 03, 2009 2:13 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [WiX-users] Execute an MSI within an MSI


Hello,

 

I am wondering if it is possible to execute an MSI within the MSI that I create using Wix.

 

I need to do it because a provider delivers me an MSI to install part of a solution and I need to bundle everything within an MSI.

 

Thanks,

David

_________________________________________________________________
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[Dirk Räder]

Hi,

it is definitely not possible to call another MSI when an installation
process is already running. Windows Installer takes care of that.

You can either reverse engineer the MSI as already suggested, which I
would not do - you have to do so every time you get a new MSI from
your provider.

I would write a simple bootstrapper application that calls the MSIs in
sequence. If the second installer fails, uninstallation of the first
installation should be proposed to the user.

Hope that helps,

Dirk


2009/7/3 Sunkesula, Srivardhan <[hidden email]>:

> As far as I know, we cannot call an MSI inside an other MSI.
> Anyone Correct me if I'm wrong.
>
> What we can do is generate wxs from the msi(reverse engineering), which we need inside our msi.
> Then generate an MSI including those wxs.
>
> Thanks &Regards,
> Srivardhan.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Hernández Díez [mailto:[hidden email]]
> Sent: Friday, July 03, 2009 2:13 PM
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: [WiX-users] Execute an MSI within an MSI
>
>
> Hello,
>
>
>
> I am wondering if it is possible to execute an MSI within the MSI that I create using Wix.
>
>
>
> I need to do it because a provider delivers me an MSI to install part of a solution and I need to bundle everything within an MSI.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> David
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Windows Live(tm): Keep your life in sync. Check it out!
> http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t1_allup_explore_012009
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> _______________________________________________
> WiX-users mailing list
> [hidden email]
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> _______________________________________________
> WiX-users mailing list
> [hidden email]
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
>

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[Rob Hamflett]

Sunkesula, Srivardhan wrote:
> As far as I know, we cannot call an MSI inside an other MSI.
> Anyone Correct me if I'm wrong.

You can, but not in a very nice way.  You can run pretty much anything as an arbitrary custom
action.  I think there was a custom action for running another MSI file, but this might have been
removed.  The problem is that only one installation can run the server-side script that actually
makes changes to the system.  This means you have to schedule the second MSI outside this part of
the installation, which in turn means you've lost all hope of performing a full, proper rollback if
things go wrong.  This is why most stuff like this is done with a bootstrapper, so that you can
check if each installation succeeded or not before proceeding with the next one.

Rob


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[Pally Sandher]

Srivardhan is correct, chaining MSI's isn't supported by Windows Installer (as far as I know but my knowledge is limited to v3.1 since it's the only version widely supported from XP onwards. v4.5 or v5 may have different functionality but until they're provided for Windows XP through automatic updates they don't exist as far as I'm concerned).

Reverse Engineering an MSI isn't something I'd recommend in this scenario.

Either ask your provider to deliver merge modules to you instead of a pre-built MSI which you can incorporate into your own MSI or use a bootstrapper to install both MSI's sequentially.
There are plenty of freely available bootstrappers you could use if you don't wish to 'roll your own'. WiX 3.5 has one in development called burn but until it's stable you may wish to use something like dotnetinstaller or even the Setup.exe which Visual Studio provides.

Good luck,


Palbinder Sandher
Software Deployment & IT Administrator
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-----Original Message-----
From: Sunkesula, Srivardhan [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: 03 July 2009 10:16
To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset.
Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Execute an MSI within an MSI

As far as I know, we cannot call an MSI inside an other MSI.
Anyone Correct me if I'm wrong.

What we can do is generate wxs from the msi(reverse engineering), which we need inside our msi.
Then generate an MSI including those wxs.

Thanks &Regards,
Srivardhan.
 

-----Original Message-----
From: David Hernández Díez [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Friday, July 03, 2009 2:13 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [WiX-users] Execute an MSI within an MSI


Hello,

 

I am wondering if it is possible to execute an MSI within the MSI that I create using Wix.

 

I need to do it because a provider delivers me an MSI to install part of a solution and I need to bundle everything within an MSI.

 

Thanks,

David

_________________________________________________________________
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[Thomas Due]

Or you could check with your provider to see if he can deliver a merge module instead?

Thomas



-----Original Message-----
From: Dirk Räder [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: 3. juli 2009 12:20
To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset.
Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Execute an MSI within an MSI

Hi,

it is definitely not possible to call another MSI when an installation
process is already running. Windows Installer takes care of that.

You can either reverse engineer the MSI as already suggested, which I
would not do - you have to do so every time you get a new MSI from
your provider.

I would write a simple bootstrapper application that calls the MSIs in
sequence. If the second installer fails, uninstallation of the first
installation should be proposed to the user.

Hope that helps,

Dirk


2009/7/3 Sunkesula, Srivardhan <[hidden email]>:

> As far as I know, we cannot call an MSI inside an other MSI.
> Anyone Correct me if I'm wrong.
>
> What we can do is generate wxs from the msi(reverse engineering), which we need inside our msi.
> Then generate an MSI including those wxs.
>
> Thanks &Regards,
> Srivardhan.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Hernández Díez [mailto:[hidden email]]
> Sent: Friday, July 03, 2009 2:13 PM
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: [WiX-users] Execute an MSI within an MSI
>
>
> Hello,
>
>
>
> I am wondering if it is possible to execute an MSI within the MSI that I create using Wix.
>
>
>
> I need to do it because a provider delivers me an MSI to install part of a solution and I need to bundle everything within an MSI.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> David
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Windows Live(tm): Keep your life in sync. Check it out!
> http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t1_allup_explore_012009
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> _______________________________________________
> WiX-users mailing list
> [hidden email]
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> _______________________________________________
> WiX-users mailing list
> [hidden email]
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
>

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