Yeah, definitely not an install issue anymore, but I appreciate the suggestions!
You're right that whatever takes up the extra space doesn't necessary have to actually be a container. My ultimate goal is to simply guarantee that my program has X space allocated to it for use, so your solution would work. I'm still looking into containers though; a colleague of mine just reminded me of ISO files and virtual disk images. Alain -----Original Message----- From: Walter Dexter [mailto:wfdex...@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, March 14, 2014 14:31 To: General discussion about the WiX toolset. Subject: Re: [WiX-users] ReserveCost doesn't appear to reserve disk space This really isn't an install issue at this point, but... Do you actually need to store things in this file, or are you just wanting to make sure you have X MB available for your program? If the latter, you could create and package a file that contains the same byte value over and over. That should compress to very small. Then as your program writes to other files on the disk, reduce the size of your padding file by the same amount. If you mark the file system/hidden most users won't see it. It wouldn't be perfect thanks to disk block sizes and so forth, but it'd be close enough for most things. What are your real requirements and what of your description is just thinking about how you might be able to make it work? On Fri, Mar 14, 2014 at 12:18 PM, Alain Forget <afor...@cmu.edu> wrote: > Interesting; I hadn't heard of NTFS sparse files, but unfortunately, I > can't assume NTFS on my target installation machines. > > I'm currently wondering if there's some kind of file container I can use > that will take up X disk space all the time, but that my program can open > and add & remove files to it, without modifying the externally visible > size...just like a TrueCrypt volume, but simpler, easy-to-use > programmatically, and preferably is essentially invisible to the user. I'd > also prefer to be able to generate this container on the client, rather > than having to pre-package a potentially very large container with my > installer (and/or requiring the user to download the large container). > > If it happens to have built-in compression and/or encryption, then bonus! > > Alain > > -----Original Message----- > From: keith.doug...@statcan.gc.ca [mailto:keith.doug...@statcan.gc.ca] > Sent: Friday, March 14, 2014 13:05 > To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net > Subject: Re: [WiX-users] ReserveCost doesn't appear to reserve disk space > > I suppose it would need a custom action, but couldn't one allocate an NTFS > sparse file (assuming an NTFS file system, anyway)? > > > Keith Douglas > Statistics Canada | 170 Tunney's Pasture Driveway, Ottawa ON K1A 0T6 > Statistique Canada | 170, promenade Tunney's Pasture, Ottawa ON K1A 0T6 > keith.doug...@statcan.gc.ca > Telephone | Téléphone 613-951-4405 > Facsimile | Télécopieur 613-951-1966 > Government of Canada | Gouvernement du Canada > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Alain Forget [mailto:afor...@cmu.edu] > Sent: March-14-14 12:57 PM > To: 'General discussion about the WiX toolset.' > Subject: Re: [WiX-users] ReserveCost doesn't appear to reserve disk space > > Ahhhhh, so ReserveCost is to reserve space perhaps for CustomActions or > other things Windows Installer might not be able to predict. > > Yeah, I was afraid of that. The only idea I had to "reserve" disk space > was to use a TrueCrypt volume of 100MB (or whatever size) and then > programmatically open it and close it when needed and store data. Of > course, then there'd be various complications, such as finding an available > drive letter at run-time to opening the volume, and so on. > > Thanks for the info, and if there are any other ideas, please do let me > know. > > Alain > > -----Original Message----- > From: Phil Wilson [mailto:phildgwil...@gmail.com] > Sent: Friday, March 14, 2014 12:49 > To: General discussion about the WiX toolset. > Subject: Re: [WiX-users] ReserveCost doesn't appear to reserve disk space > > It's mostly internal to the install - by the time costing is complete for > the target volume there should be at least that 100MB remaining. > Because it's part of the cost you should get a "low disk error" if there's > not enough space on that volume during the install. Programs and Features > includes the cost because you said you'd be needing it :) > > My Win32 brain tells me that disk space isn't in a directory anyway, so > there isn't a way to say that some space belongs to a particular directory > as far as I know, and I know of no way that Windows would somehow know that > your apps (that haven't even run yet) are the only ones allowed to use the > space. > --------------- > Phil Wilson > > > On Fri, Mar 14, 2014 at 9:20 AM, Alain Forget <afor...@cmu.edu> wrote: > > Hi all, > > > > This may relate to Windows Installer in general (and not WiX > specifically), but when I use ReserveCost to reserve say 100MB for > Directory A, I would expect the amount of free space on the disk to be > reduced by at least 100MB after installation, to signify that the overall > disk space has been reduced (even though there is 100MB reserved for > Directory A). However, this does not occur. Curiously, it does appear as > though ReserveCost is having some effect, because in the Programs and > Features area, my installer now takes 100+MB of space, while before it did > not. > > > > >From reading docs online (see refs below), I had understood that > ReserveCost will "reserve" or "section/block off" whatever amount of space > I request for the specified directory after installation, which I presume > would remain unavailable to other directories on disk until the program is > uninstalled. > > > > Is this incorrect? If my understanding is incorrect, does anyone know of > a way to "reserve" space for post-installation generated data files and so > on? > > > > ReserveCost references: > > - http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/aa371226.aspx > > - > > http://wixtoolset.org/documentation/manual/v3/xsd/wix/reservecost.html > > - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa394398%28v=vs.85%29.aspx > > > > Thank you, > > Alain > > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > -------- Learn Graph Databases - Download FREE O'Reilly Book "Graph > > Databases" is the definitive new guide to graph databases and their > > applications. Written by three acclaimed leaders in the field, this > > first edition is now available. Download your free book today! > > http://p.sf.net/sfu/13534_NeoTech > > _______________________________________________ > > WiX-users mailing list > > WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Learn Graph Databases - Download FREE O'Reilly Book "Graph Databases" is > the definitive new guide to graph databases and their applications. Written > by three acclaimed leaders in the field, this first edition is now > available. Download your free book today! > http://p.sf.net/sfu/13534_NeoTech > _______________________________________________ > WiX-users mailing list > WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Learn Graph Databases - Download FREE O'Reilly Book "Graph Databases" is > the definitive new guide to graph databases and their applications. Written > by three acclaimed leaders in the field, this first edition is now > available. Download your free book today! > http://p.sf.net/sfu/13534_NeoTech > _______________________________________________ > WiX-users mailing list > WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Learn Graph Databases - Download FREE O'Reilly Book > "Graph Databases" is the definitive new guide to graph databases and their > applications. Written by three acclaimed leaders in the field, > this first edition is now available. Download your free book today! > http://p.sf.net/sfu/13534_NeoTech > _______________________________________________ > WiX-users mailing list > WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Learn Graph Databases - Download FREE O'Reilly Book > "Graph Databases" is the definitive new guide to graph databases and their > applications. Written by three acclaimed leaders in the field, > this first edition is now available. Download your free book today! > http://p.sf.net/sfu/13534_NeoTech > _______________________________________________ > WiX-users mailing list > WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Learn Graph Databases - Download FREE O'Reilly Book "Graph Databases" is the definitive new guide to graph databases and their applications. Written by three acclaimed leaders in the field, this first edition is now available. Download your free book today! http://p.sf.net/sfu/13534_NeoTech _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Learn Graph Databases - Download FREE O'Reilly Book "Graph Databases" is the definitive new guide to graph databases and their applications. Written by three acclaimed leaders in the field, this first edition is now available. Download your free book today! http://p.sf.net/sfu/13534_NeoTech _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
