I have seen this was asked in the bask back in 2008 and can't find anything newer on the subject so I am bring it up again.
Is there a way to prevent a user from extracting the files from the installer and reading the nsi file.
I read something the opcode needs to be changed in the exe of nsis. Has NSIS come up with a plugin or something so users do not have to modify the exe?
If there an easy way or is it still messing with the exe. and if so can you point me in the right direction on how to do this or if someone has already posted a version
Thank!
NSIS is open source so it is not unsurprising that people are able to write decompilers.
There is no easy way to prevent it and the recommended method is still the same; change the order of the opcodes in \Source\exehead\fileform.h and compile NSIS.
To prevent most people from getting access to your files you can use one of the zip/7z/rar plug-ins from the NSIS Wiki that accepts a password and include a password protected archive in your installer. Keep in mind that a sophisticated user can run the installer in a debugger and find your password when you call the plug-in to extract the files.
Related
I want to be able to display the release notes to the end user before the installation has started (e.g. if there are any code changes they should be aware of before upgrading to a newer version).
I've read the documentation regarding the Pascal code BeforeInstall and AfterInstall Parameters, but my problem is how can I make a reference to my release notes file as it is packed inside the setup executable? I realise the simplest answer would be to simply package the installer with a copy of the text file sitting alongside it so it could reference it in this way, but then if the user only copies the executable for example, this would presumably cause a reference error.
What is the best way to go about implementing this?
You are looking for the InfoBeforeFile directive:
[Setup]
InfoBeforeFile=infobefore.txt
I want to create custom documents on my website which is running on a Linux-based server. My website has user login capability to access specific details on the website.
What I want to do is:
Use a default .tex file where the contents of the main document are stored. This would be available on the server (on admin side);
Get few user specific inputs (like login name, the day and date when the request was made), their custom inputs like what specific details they want (this will make it possible to include or exclude few chapters, sections from the document);
Using the inputs received above (in point 2), the document would be customized on the fly on the website by running LaTeX compiler and the output of the compilation would be shared with the user.
My questions are:
Has someone tried this before? Any suggestions, alternatives they can point to? If there is any other better solution than LaTeX, I am open to hear and understand that as well.
Are there any specific settings that we need to do either on the server or on LaTeX installation that will enable doing this?
Any additional packages, programs are required to be installed to get this working?
Any help and insights would be appreciated.
You can generate PDF using appropriate libraries for programming language you use for your back-end. This is definitely safer than injecting user input into TeX file and probably would be faster too.
PHP: Best way to create a PDF with PHP
Ruby: https://github.com/prawnpdf/prawn
anything else: google for "$LANGUAGE generate pdf".
The first and the second questions can be done in any programming language you choose while reading the .tex template and add/omit the data, then save it to the temporal .tex file. After compilation yo can remove this file. If you are working with a linux server you can use a service (cron, systemd) to automate the cleaning of files.
To compile and get the file you must use pdflatex command line program, which is the one any LaTeX editor uses. I compile my LaTeX documents this way in linux. I think this way is quite fast, except if you want images in this document, or are using tikz pictures.
I know I am suggesting the old way to do the work, but usually is the best way.
And, finally, I think PHDComics uses something like this for the emergency button (down in the right), only that in the site the pdf is already generated for the specific comic: http://www.phdcomics.com/
I am trying to automate the install of a few setup files (.exe). I managed to get one working without any issue but am having difficulty with the second.
I created response files by using the following in command prompt:
MyProgram.exe -r
This generated a "setup.exe" file in C:\Windows as I would expect it to. Here is an example of what the file looks like in notepad:
[{PRODUCT_GUID}-DlgOrder]
Dlg0={PRODUCT_GUID}-SdWelcome-0
Count=5
Dlg1={PRODUCT_GUID}-SdLicense-0
Dlg2={PRODUCT_GUID}-SdAskDestPath-0
Dlg3={PRODUCT_GUID}-SdSelectFolder-0
Dlg4={PRODUCT_GUID}-SdStartCopy-0
[{PRODUCT_GUID}-SdWelcome-0]
Result=1
[{PRODUCT_GUID}-SdLicense-0]
Result=1
[{PRODUCT_GUID}-SdAskDestPath-0]
szDir=C:\Example\
Result=1
[{PRODUCT_GUID}-SdSelectFolder-0]
szFolder=Example\Folder
Result=1
[{PRODUCT_GUID}-SdStartCopy-0]
Result=1
I run the install with the setup.iss (response file) using the command:
program.exe /S /f1.\setup.iss
All response files seem to work except for one. The program opens a dialog asking me to select from a pair of radio buttons to select what language manual I want it to install. I want it to default to hit the "Next" button but there's obviously nothing recorded in the .iss file to do so.
What do I have to manually add to the .iss file in order to complete this prompt?
Why doesn't my recording put this in?
Additional information:
If I manually hit "Next" at this step, the program completes install as expected.
The program successfully installs when I install everything manually.
It sounds like this installation includes a custom dialog that doesn't properly handle either MODE SILENTMODE or RECORDMODE. For silent installations to work properly, it needs to call SilentWriteData and SilentReadData when appropriate.
If you are the author of this installation (whether original or inherited), you should handle this case. If you are not the author and are trying to install this installation silently, you should contact the vendor, or (as Glytzhkof suggests) ask on a more relevant site for workarounds.
I think the response file will only contain the actual answers that were input during the original response file creation session. Did this missing dialog show up during the original setup run? Reboot dialogs and rare to display dialogs are often missing from the response file.
It could also be that the missing dialog is a custom made dialog and not a built-in Installshield dialog. I suppose this could mean it doesn't behave in the standard way.
How complex is this setup? How many systems are you deploying to? To reliably deploy files like these it is common to use "setup capture" and repackage as MSI files - so called application repackaging.
Depending on how many setups you have, how important they are and how many machines they need to reliably work on it might be worth capturing them. This is a highly complex task at times, but yield more reliable deployment once done right. Personally I find the biggest benefit of repackaging is the availability of a reliable uninstall - provided you have cleaned up the capture properly. Otherwise you have to create response files for the uninstall too. Very clunky and error prone - even when done well.
You might want to take this discussion to serverfault.com - the system administrator equivalent to stackoverflow.com. You can also have a look here: http://unattended.sourceforge.net/installers.php
I am trying to automate installshield 6.0.
I want to automate the Name and Version field under Project->settings->Application.
I am trying to put the values in the fields via command prompt.
Can anyone please suggest how can it be done?
I believe InstallShield 6 stored its project information in INI or INI-like files. Examine the changes made to these files when you change those fields in the IDE. Once you know what it does, it should then be straightforward to write a command-line exe that makes the same (or configurable) changes to any project.
I wanted to write an NSIS script, let's call it for now setup.nsi, and check
if several required dll files already exists in $SYSDIR
Let me emphasize on the word "several"
What I understand from nsis IfFileExists documentation is that if I type in:
IfFileExists $SYSDIR\blabla.dll +2 +1
then it checks if blabla.dll is in $SYSDIR .. but what if I want to know if *.dll from where setup.nsi copies the file (i.e. the *.dll's that I am interested in installing in.. and they are a lot of them.. so I can't just go around checking for all the names) exists in $SYSDIR
During uninstallation I want to then be able to delete them from $SYSDIR (using some uninstall.log to see if I really copied them in $SYSDIR.. and again the wildcard question).
Please be patient with me as I am really new to NSIS scripts.
Is it REALLY necessary to write and delete in $SYSDIR ? Unless yours is a system file, there's no reason for it to be in $__SYS__DIR. If you need to use a specific version of a library, consider DLL redirection (put your DLL in your app dir and use the .local feature) - see the MSDN article on DLL redirection and Side-by-side assemblies.
Plus, you are one typo away from wrecking the user's computer ("Deleted: C:\Windows\System32\user32.dll").
As Piskvor mentions, I don't think you should be worrying about deleting system DLLs in the uninstaller. In case you want to overwrite system DLLs with an updated version, you may want to look at the SetOverwrite command. It lets you overwrite files if what you've got is newer.
Windows XP (SP2?) and up has file protection for system32, so you can't overwrite system critical files in there.
Do try to stay away from that.
Also, to check for your file specifically, see if there's a plugin for NSIS that can calculate checksums and compare that on uninstall. That's probably the safest, IF you really need to do it.
I'd suggest install files somewhere else and add that to PATH.