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Using /D with makensis.exe

3 posts

risingfire#

Using /D with makensis.exe

I am trying to define and/or override some !defines in script using /D on the command line. But I can't get it to work correctly.

I made the following test installation script:

!include "MUI.nsh"



!define TESTDEFINE "in script"

!define MUI_FINISHPAGE_NOAUTOCLOSE

!insertmacro MUI_PAGE_DIRECTORY

!insertmacro MUI_PAGE_INSTFILES

!insertmacro MUI_LANGUAGE "English"



Name "TestSetup"

OutFile "c:\temp\TestSetup.exe"

InstallDir "c:\temp\My application"

ShowInstDetails show



Section "MainSection" SEC01

  SetOutPath "$INSTDIR"

  SetOverwrite ifnewer

  File "c:\temp\files\*.*"

  MessageBox MB_OK "Def is ${TESTDEFINE}"

SectionEnd
I'm calling makensis.exe like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\makensis.exe" "testscript.nsi" /DTESTDEFINE="from command line"

If working correctly, then the pop-up message window when the script creates the setup EXE should read "Def is from command line".

But it instead reads "Def is in script"

If I remove TESTDEFINE from the script, I get this compilation error:

C:\temp>"C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\makensis.exe" "testscript.nsi" /DTESTDEFINE="from command line"

Processing config: C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\nsisconf.nsh

Processing script file: "testscript.nsi" (ACP)

warning 6000: unknown variable/constant "{TESTDEFINE}" detected, ignoring (testscript.nsi:21)

Command line defined: "TESTDEFINE=from command line"



Processed 1 file, writing output (x86-ansi):

warning 7998: ANSI targets are deprecated



Output: "c:\temp\TestSetup.exe"

Install: 2 pages (128 bytes), 1 section (2072 bytes), 47 instructions (1316 bytes), 68 strings (1211 bytes), 1 language table (262 bytes).



Using zlib compression.



EXE header size:               51200 / 38400 bytes

Install code:                   1248 / 4429 bytes

Install data:                    852 / 2107 bytes

CRC (0xFC6E3AA7):                  4 / 4 bytes



Total size:                    53304 / 44940 bytes (118.6%)



2 warnings:

  6000: unknown variable/constant "{TESTDEFINE}" detected, ignoring (testscript.nsi:21)
If I have it defined in the script, the compilation completes with no errors and makensis says:

Command line defined: "TESTDEFINE=from command line"

But it does not change TESTDEFINE in the script.

What am I doing wrong?

Dave
Anders#
Read the makensis command line help one more time. It specifically tells you
Parameters are processed in order. makensis /Ddef script.nsi is not the same as makensis script.nsi /Ddef.
And in your script you need

!define /IfNDef TESTDEFINE "in script"