paraclete
4th March 2002 15:45 UTC

HowTo: User variables for Name, DirText, File
I've got several very common installation files. I'd like to use variables so I can !include and call.

I'm having trouble getting user variables to work the way I would think they would/should work. They don't seem to be usable outside a section, so they are unavailable for "Name", "OutFile", "InstallDir", etc. I tried .onInit, which partially works.

Within a Section, they seem to be partially available.
File $1 or File "$1" doesn't seem to work.

WriteRegStr HKCU SOFTWARE\MySw\$1\Params "Install_Dir" "$INSTDIR"
WriteRegStr HKCU SOFTWARE\MySw\$1\Params "TestVar1" "$1"
both work as I would expect.

Am I doing something wrong? Is there another way to accomplish this same functionality? I would like to have MyInstall.nsi as parameterized as possible, perhaps even to the point of using command line arguments. That seems partially possible.

Is there a way to set variables before 'Name', 'OutFile' ?

Below is a TestVars.nsi

Function .onInit
StrCpy $1 "TestVars"
StrCpy $2 "$1Setup.exe"
StrCpy $3 "3.0.91"
StrCpy $4 "V:\$1.exe"
FunctionEnd

;StrCpy $5 $1 ; <--- This doesn't work
Name $1 ; <-- This doesn't work
OutFile $2.exe ; <--- This doesn't work
InstallDir $PROGRAMFILES\$1
InstallDirRegKey HKLM SOFTWARE\LaSofStuf\$1 "Install_Dir"
DirText "Welcome to the installation/setup program for $1 ver $3"

Section "ThisNameIsIgnored"
SetOutPath $INSTDIR
; Put files there
; File $4 <-- This doesn't work

WriteRegStr HKCU SOFTWARE\MySw\$1\Params "Install_Dir" "$INSTDIR"
WriteRegStr HKCU SOFTWARE\MySw\$1\Params "TestVar1" "$1"
WriteRegStr HKCU SOFTWARE\MySw\$1\Params "TestVar2" "$2"
WriteRegStr HKCU SOFTWARE\MySw\$1\Params "TestVar3" "$3"
WriteRegStr HKCU SOFTWARE\MySw\$1\Params "TestVar4" "$4"

SectionEnd ; end the section

Regards,
Paraclete

superrock
4th March 2002 19:23 UTC

Variables only valid in Sections
Hi,

Sorry, variables are only valid in Sections. Unfortunately this is the standard behavior of this tool.

See documentation(makensis.htm): "Installer attributes"

With the exception of InstallDir, none of these attributes allow use of Variables other than $\r and $\n in their strings.

You must use a preprocessor function for it ( e.g. ${variable} ).

Greetings,
Andreas

;)

paraclete
4th March 2002 19:49 UTC

Thanks for the very prompt reply. :up:

I'm still thinking the 'File' command inside the install section should have worked. Am I doing something wrong there? Should I define a user variable $R1? :weird:

I didn't see anything about preprocessing variables. I'll take a relook.:igor:

These icons are cool.

superrock
4th March 2002 22:23 UTC

File & variables
Hi Paraclete:)

I really don't know why FIle is not working with variables. The documentations does not disallow to do what you want.

For preprocessing an example for you. For further details refer "Compiler defines/conditional compilation"

;Superrock example
!define VER_MAIN 3
!define VER_MAJOR 0
!define VER_MINOR 91
!define VERSION ${VER_MAIN}.${VER_MAJOR}.${VER_MINOR}
!define APPLNAME TestVars
!define INSTSOURCE V:\

Name ${APPLNAME}
OutFile ${APPLNAME}.exe
InstallDir $PROGRAMFILES\${APPLNAME}
InstallDirRegKey HKLM SOFTWARE\LaSofStuf\${APPLNAME} "Install_Dir"
DirText "Welcome to the installation/setup program for ${APPLNAME} V${VERSION}"

; The stuff to install
Section "${PACKAGE} Program files"

SetOutPath $INSTDIR

File "${INSTSOURCE}\${APPLNAME}.exe"

Strcpy $1 ${APPLNAME}
WriteRegStr HKCU SOFTWARE\MySw\$1\Params "Install_Dir" "$INSTDIR"
WriteRegStr HKCU SOFTWARE\MySw\$1\Params "TestVar1" "$1"
.
.

SectionEnd


Greetings,
Andreas;)

paraclete
4th March 2002 22:41 UTC

Thanks Andreas!!

I'll post a bug report on 'File'. With just a glance, it looks like maybe I can do something equivalent with !define.

Paraclete