BuilderBob
18th May 2008 13:54 UTC

"????" in APPDATA path for non unicode (hebrew) windows username
  Hi everyone,
Installer doesn't want to work when windows username is in non-unicode language (specifically, Hebrew).

Assuming I can't use the unicode version of nsis compiler:

Environment: Windows XP, username is in Hebrew. In Regional settings I deliberately didn't set hebrew as the language for non-unicode applications.

Problem: In paths such as $APPDATA, NSIS replaces the user name with question marks.

Hint: The command line tool (command, not cmd) displays a short path with a number instead of the hebrew username (see image).

How can I get this number programmatically? Is there another solution to the question marks problem, without using unicode-nsis?

Thanks.

Animaether
18th May 2008 14:35 UTC

You can try...

4.9.3.9 GetFullPathName
[/SHORT] user_var(output) path_or_file
Assign to the user variable $x, the full path of the file specified. If the path portion of the parameter is not found, the error flag will be set and $x will be empty. If /SHORT is specified, the path is converted to the short filename form.

BuilderBob
18th May 2008 15:29 UTC

Nope. It fails for hebrew username. Succeeds for english username. :(

kichik
18th May 2008 19:32 UTC

NSIS doesn't use Unicode and so it can only handle non-Unicode paths. You can use the Unicode version:

http://www.scratchpaper.com/

BuilderBob
19th May 2008 12:40 UTC

it's a great solution but i can't use it.

govind_gk
22nd May 2008 07:35 UTC

Originally posted by kichik
NSIS doesn't use Unicode and so it can only handle non-Unicode paths. You can use the Unicode version:

http://www.scratchpaper.com/

Joost Verburg
22nd May 2008 16:23 UTC

Maybe NSIS can put the short filename in the variable when the full one in Unicode?

kichik
22nd May 2008 18:14 UTC

That's what the API provides and once you get question marks, you can't safely convert it to a short name.

BuilderBob
25th May 2008 08:41 UTC

I coded a C/C++ solution last week and now calling it from my installer. This is the important part of the function:

// csidl is int value for some user folder.


>TCHAR path***91;256***93;;

>memset(path, 0, 256);

if (!SHGetSpecialFolderPathW(NULL, path, csidl, FALSE)) return FALSE;

    

>TCHAR shortPath***91;256***93;;

>memset(shortPath, 0, 256);

if (!GetShortPathNameW(path, shortPath, 256)) return FALSE;


>char asciiShortPath***91;256***93;;

>memset(asciiShortPath, 0, 256);

>strcpy(asciiShortPath, ATL::CT2A(shortPath));