Create a msi from .wxs file using command line

Question

I'm creating a -wxs file from dir using heat.exe and now would want to generate/create msi from wxs file using command line utilities with out visual studion.

One of the user suggested in below question to referred to see Output window of Visual Studio and do the same.

Programmatically build WXS into MSI

Could some one help on, how to create msi from wxs file.

Nocturn

Did you check command line tools inside the bin folder? Candle and light are what you are looking for. – Harmonicon

Alternatively, if you do indeed have a .wixproj, build it with MSBuild. Which part of the documentation are you having trouble with? – Vardhamana

Answer 1

As Vinoth suggested, I had looked wix command line utilities and created msi

I've created msi using wix command line utility and then installed msi silently.

This Harvests file and creates .wxs file:

heat.exe dir "dirPath" -cg NewDemoGroup -g1 -gg -sf -srd -scom -sreg -out "fragment.wxs"

This will create a .wixobj file

candle.exe product.wxs fragment.wxs -ext WixUIExtension

And this generates the msi.

light.exe -out demo.msi -b "dirPath" product.wixobj fragment.wixobj -ext WixUIExtension

Nocturn

Answer 2

While an effort to build a “Continuous Delivery Using Build Pipelines With Jenkins ”, we came across a hurdle of how to generate a .msi package using wix from command line.

Below is the link for the article which would provide a more detailed description of the whole approach.

https://nigamgautamblog.wordpress.com/

Pooi

Link answers are subject to rot, could you paraphrase the parts of the article most useful to OP in your answer? – Matri

going to upvote, because it did help. But, like thodic states, you might pull down that link at some point and the article is not that long... you definitely could put it on stack overflow and never have to worry about it again. – Epanorthosis

By far the most helpful part of this link was the realization that both a Product.wxs (already in the repo) & Fragment.wxs (generated by heat) were used together to create x2 *.winobj files, which then were made into 1 *.msi. – Doxy

Answer 3

According to the wix v4.0.5 Release notes you can now create a msi file from a .wxs with a single command:

wix build -o product.msi product.wxs

Shelba