The easiest way (although not the fastest) to get a binary wixpdb file is to make sure that your WXS that contains your Product element doesn't contain any files (not even in the Binary table) and that you build all your WXS files that have any kind of file in them into "binary WIXLIBS" (use the -bf flag on the lit.exe tool). Then link those wixlibs with your .WIXOBJ file compiled from your WXS file containing the Product tag into your MSI. Unfortunately, the binary WIXPDB still doesn't contain the files from Merge Modules without a change to the wix toolset itself, so those files are not so easily patched (there is a way, but it is much more work).
Torch compares database rows, it does not compare the files themselves. The file comparison is done by Pyro, but that requires one of two things: 1) The file source paths are different between the two builds AND that the source paths from the earlier build are still available for the Pyro tool. Or 2) The files are embedded in the WIXPDB. There is no option to force files into the WIXPDB, but all files that come from wix-style bound sources (Wix-provided extensions and others built using the same bound-library model, binary WIXLIBs, binary WIXOUTs) will automatically always be included in the wixpdb (barring any bugs). Files where the File table row changed *should* also be patchable when NOT using "binary delta" patching (which you aren't) even without the old file for comparison simply because the File table row is different. Any changes to the corresponding MsiFileHash table *should* also make the file patchable, but I'm less sure of that working (I didn't write that part of the code, and I haven't fully investigated it either). However, having the old files present will always make the file patchable, and is a requirement to use "binary delta" patching. Now, I have not touched on using any *Ref elements under the PatchFamily element. If you use any (even one) *Ref element in your patch authoring under the PatchFamily element, files/components or Binary elements not in the same fragment as the referred-to element may not be included in your patch. -----Original Message----- From: Oleksandr Y. Nechyporenko [mailto:alexnc69...@gmail.com] Sent: Saturday, September 25, 2010 11:45 PM To: 'General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset.' Subject: Re: [WiX-users] How does patching decide which files to include in msp? Blair, 1. I use the following syntax: "$(WIX)Bin\torch.exe" -p -xi "$(ProjectDir)Installers\Base\ProductSetup.wixpdb" "$(ProjectDir)Installers\Latest\ProductSetup.wixpdb" -out "$(ProjectDir)Obj\ProductSetup.wixmst" "$(WIX)Bin\candle.exe" "$(ProjectDir)ProductPatch.wxs" -out "$(ProjectDir)Obj\ProductSetup.wixobj" "$(WIX)Bin\light.exe" "$(ProjectDir)Obj\ProductSetup.wixobj" -out "$(ProjectDir)Obj\ProductSetup.wixmsp" "$(WIX)Bin\pyro.exe" "$(ProjectDir)Obj\ProductSetup.wixmsp" -out "$(ProjectDir)Installers\Latest\ProductPatch.msp" -t PRDTRS "$(ProjectDir)Obj\ProductSetup.wixmst" Where "$(ProjectDir)Installers\Base\ProductSetup.wixpdb is wixpdb created during build of previous version "$(ProjectDir)Installers\Latest\ProductSetup.wixpdb" is wixpdb created during build of new version 2. The source paths in the two wixpdbs the same. I.e. "modified" file and "base" file it is same file located in same physical path. BTW, I'm not sure, with what torch compare modified file? I've thought that wixpdb contains "old" copy of file. But now I've noticed that size of wixpdb is too small to contain copy of all base files. Does it contains hashes of files? ---------------------------------------------------------- Best Regards, Oleksandr Y. Nechyporenko -----Original Message----- From: Blair [mailto:os...@live.com] Sent: Sunday, September 26, 2010 1:05 AM To: 'General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset.' Subject: Re: [WiX-users] How does patching decide which files to include in msp? Some quick questions: 1. When calling torch, is the "-p" argument used? Without that, pyro may not see the file or other data it needs to do its job. 2. Are the source paths in the two wixpdbs the same or different? Are the wixpdbs "bound/binary" (so that the older version of the file is not overwritten by the newer build)? Without actual different files accessible to pyro, its binary comparison routine may conclude that the files are not different. The binary comparison routine by default (you can change it via an extension that provides a different BinderFileManager) is: /// <summary> /// Compares two files to determine if they are equivalent. /// </summary> /// <param name="targetFile">The target file.</param> /// <param name="updatedFile">The updated file.</param> /// <returns>true if the files are equal; false otherwise.</returns> public virtual bool CompareFiles(string targetFile, string updatedFile) { FileInfo targetFileInfo = new FileInfo(targetFile); FileInfo updatedFileInfo = new FileInfo(updatedFile); if (targetFileInfo.Length != updatedFileInfo.Length) { return false; } using (FileStream targetStream = File.OpenRead(targetFile)) { using (FileStream updatedStream = File.OpenRead(updatedFile)) { if (targetStream.Length != updatedStream.Length) { return false; } // Using a larger buffer than the default buffer of 4 * 1024 used by FileStream.ReadByte improves performance. // The buffer size is based on user feedback. Based on performance results, a better buffer size may be determined. byte[] targetBuffer = new byte[16 * 1024]; byte[] updatedBuffer = new byte[16 * 1024]; int targetReadLength; int updatedReadLength; do { targetReadLength = targetStream.Read(targetBuffer, 0, targetBuffer.Length); updatedReadLength = updatedStream.Read(updatedBuffer, 0, updatedBuffer.Length); if (targetReadLength != updatedReadLength) { return false; } for (int i = 0; i < targetReadLength; ++i) { if (targetBuffer[i] != updatedBuffer[i]) { return false; } } } while (0 < targetReadLength); } } return true; } If you know a better routine, or a way to improve this one, please open a bug. -Blair -----Original Message----- From: Travis Gaff [mailto:tra...@pc-doctor.com] Sent: Friday, September 17, 2010 4:49 PM To: 'General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset.' Subject: Re: [WiX-users] How does patching decide which files to include in msp? Thanks for the reply. Just to be clear this is not an install time issue in which certain files are not updated because their modification times have changed. I am able to extract the .msp file immediately after creation and confirm that files are not included that I wish to include. Applying the patch in Orca shows the same issues. It looks like this is occurring at the patch assembly level. -----Original Message----- From: Tony Juricic [mailto:tjuri...@tradestation.com] Sent: Friday, September 17, 2010 3:28 PM To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset. Subject: Re: [WiX-users] How does patching decide which files to include in msp? These are not WiX rules but MSI rules and are documented on MSDN site, somewhere in install patching section. -----Original Message----- From: Travis Gaff [mailto:tra...@pc-doctor.com] Sent: Thursday, September 16, 2010 12:48 PM To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: [WiX-users] How does patching decide which files to include in msp? Hello WiX users, I am trying to construct a .msp file to patch a several hundred file installation. However I am finding that a large number of files are not ending up in the final .msp file. Right now I suspect many of these are due to both the new and the old version of the file having the same version number; we're fixing this. However I have some files that do not have a version number and do have an internal change but are not in the msp. They appear to have little difference from most of the other files, they're all added with individual components to a .wxs by our build system. How does WiX decide which files to include in a patch using the pyro/torch method? By comparing several files I suspect it does the following: 1) if a file has a version number, check it, if same version skip file 2) if file doesn't have version number but there is a size difference: patch it? (I haven't verified this) 3) if no version number AND file is same size: diff the file or use creation date? What rules does WiX use to determine which files should be included in the msp? Background: All components are in 2 features. The 2nd feature is a sub-feature of the first and right now I am not even looking at its 2 shortcuts. The *patch.wxs file includes: <ComponentRef Id='co_mainui.exe' /> (a component of the main feature) <PropertyRef Id='ProductVersion'/> (to update the ARP program version) The patch is generated using .wixpdb files with torch and pyro: candle patch.wxs -dcodepage=1252 -ext WiXUtilExtension -dtop_projects_dir=C:\projects light -o out.wixmsp -cultures:en-us -ext WixUIExtension patch.wixobj -ext WiXNetFxExtension -ext WiXUtilExtension -dtop_projects_dir=C:\projects torch -t patch -p -pedantic -xi build1.wixpdb build2.wixpdb -out out.mst pyro out.wixmsp -out out.msp -t patch out1.mst I am using 3.5.1916.0, however I had similar issues in 3.0. Thank you for any help you can offer. 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