The dotnet/cli is a very self contained installation package primarily
composed of files. Thus system restore adds little value and costing
only files is sufficient to verify disk space. The result is a 20%
install time reduction, ~2 seconds, on my machine where system restore
is disabled. The win is *much* larger where system restore is still on
(the default).
Increasing the compression from "mszip" (which is notoriously out of
date) to "high" reduces the package size by 17% with no appreciable
change in build or install time. In other words, this is a free 8 MB
savings off the download size/time.
Type 51 custom actions, SetProperty, are mostly benign but if possible
custom actions should be avoided at all costs. Here we centralize the
build type check in a single location and use preprocessor variable to
remove the need for the custom action.
The dotnet installer writes content under %ProgramFiles% which is
machine-wide and requires elevation. The Package@InstallScope attribute
must be set to perMachine in this case and will ensure that the Burn
bootstrapper prompts for elevation during install.
Set a new registry 'BuildType' when installing. Check for this reg key
when upgrading to a newer version. Show error message and exit
if the previous installation does not have the same 'BuildType'.
Encode the CLI version into MSI supported ProductVersion documented here -
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa370859(v=vs.85).aspx
Example: CLI Version - 1.0.0.000930 is encoded in MSI as 4.0.930
Prevent downgrading by failing installation with error message.
Also display the original CLI version in the ProductName.
Install path is now %ProgramFiles%\dotnet
Registry root is now "HKLM\SOFTWARE\dotnet\Setup"
Env variables setup is now associated with a versioned component - the
registry keys. Environment resource cannot serve as a keypath hence it is
coupled with a registry key which is the key path for the component.
- Use the heat tool to harvest the stage2 dir and create install-files.wxs
- dotnet.wxs contains the XML code which is constant across builds for an MSI.
- Use Candle and Light to generate the MSI from install-files.wxs and dotnet.wxs.
Default Install Location - %ProgramFiles%/dotnet.
Adds <InstallRoot>\bin %PATH%
Creates %DOTNET_HOME% pointing to <InstallRoot>
