MAKEMSI quickly and reliably creates MSI files in a non-programmatic way\Tips and TricksToolsSMOKE.EXE

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SMOKE.EXE

This is a command line tool program, not sure if you can still find it. I have been told: I have found a newer version of the SMOKE.EXE validator as a part of the VIX 3.0 (beta) Suite (Windows Installer XML v3) at http://wix.sourceforge.net/downloadv3.html.

This program doesn't currently integrate with MAKEMSI, let me know if it works and I'll add support.

I have asked for some additions and mentioned some problems with the tool (no response so far) however its main "features" are:

• Its invalid assumption that all validation names are 5 characters long and begin with "ICE"! It dosen't display the whole name! This is OK as long as you don't want to write your own (or you are happy to "steal" Microsoft IDs although you could problably use "ICEaa-ICEzz"). This is with its "normal" and "XML" outputs.

• Its bad error reporting. See if you can work out whats wrong when something fails... Its hard to trust a tool with bad error handling.

• It doesn't document all its flags (for example "-x" for XML output). The fact that invalid switches are ignored doesn't help.

Still its the only command line alternative to the "MSIVAL2" tool.

SMOKE.EXE /?

Michael Sanford's Windows Installer Validation Tool (Version 1.0.1813.21921)
Copyright (C) Michael Sanford 2004. All rights reserved.

Usage:  smoke.exe [-?] [-nologo] [-i] [-w] cubfile msifile

   -i       supress 'info' messages
   -w       supress 'warning' messages
   -nologo  supress logo information
   -?       this help information

Return Codes:

   0       No Errors or Warnings
   1       Warnings were issued
   2       Errors were issued
   3       Fatal Error

For more information see: http://www.deploynow.com

Please email me any feedback, additional information or corrections. See this page online (look for updates) MAKEMSI© is (C)opyright Dennis Bareis 2003-2008 (All rights reserved). Saturday November 19 2011 at 2:21pm Visit MAKEMSI's Home Page