Actually in the case of the GAC the GAC (or Windows) itself does the reference counting so matching guids for components is not necessary. If two different installs put an assembly in the GAC it will not be removed until the last install is remove, in addition it can't be manually deleted as there are references back to the install.
Neil -----Original Message----- From: Phil Wilson [mailto:phildgwil...@gmail.com] Sent: 03 April 2014 16:59 To: General discussion about the WiX toolset. Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Adding 3rd party assemblies to the GAC In these situations you hope that the 3rd party has some docs explaining how to share correctly (giving you component ids maybe) or a redistributable exe or a merge module. The short answer is that neither WiX nor Windows Installer will manage the ref counts correctly unless they are shared correctly, and that means all the redistributors using the same component ids. If an app is relying on any file that has been installed manually it's ok unless it's also installed with an MSI package - it will generally work but depending on the order you'll get a repair if you remove it manually or (in the GAC) a message that it can't be removed because it's in use. It's a mess to mix things this way. --------------- Phil Wilson On Thu, Apr 3, 2014 at 8:10 AM, James McConville <james.mcconvi...@orbussoftware.com> wrote: > Hello, > > Quick question regarding adding third party libraries to the GAC. > > Naturally if our app is used we don't want the 3rd party dlls to be > uninstalled unless they are not being used. So my question is, does wix > increment and decrement the reference counts when installing and uninstalling? > > Also is there a recognized approach for dealing with the possibility that a > program is installed that is relying on a manually 'gacced' assembly? > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > -------- _______________________________________________ > WiX-users mailing list > WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
