Bob Arnson wrote:
John Vottero wrote:
The System.Configuration.Installer base class has virtual methods for
Install, Uninstall, Commit and Rollback. Doesn't that mean that that it
can support Rollbacks?
Yes, they can. The number that do is vanishingly small. Doing it right
is hard, regardless of language. Half the time, they're not even close
to necessary: The event log stuff in InstallUtil, for example, just
writes registry keys. So you have CAs and managed CAs when a few rows in
the Registry table get it for free.
I agree that writing a good CA is hard but, I'll bet it's easier in C#
than it is in C. I also agree that eliminating a CA is the best way to
make it robust.
The PowerShell stuff is also just a bunch of registry entries (I think,
it's not documented).
I don't know enough about Windows Installer to understand all the
implications of managed CAs. What I do know is that there are many
groups at Microsoft that are creating managed CAs to support their
products and they aren't creating unmanaged CAs and they aren't
documenting what their managed CAs actually do so ISV's are left stuck
in the middle. We have to reverse engineer the Microsoft managed CAs so
we can develop "proper" installers.
The situation is clearly broken and it's up to Microsoft to fix it.
Yes and in addition to Rob's suggestion of pinging the MSI team, I'll
add: Ping the teams whose stuff you use. Let them know that blindly
calling managed code via InstallUtil isn't good enough for you. Teams
like the black-box approach because it gives them future flexibility
(over, say, documenting the registry entries their IntallUtil CAs
write). Tough. Let them know it. Document the stuff and WiX can handle
them via extensions and, when necessary, CAs.
I always try to register my concerns with the teams producing the
managed installers. The PowerShell team has said that they would
document what their managed installer does but, I haven't seen the
documentation yet.
The "future flexibility" angle is my biggest worry. One of these days,
some team is going to completely scramble what their managed installer
does and they'll think that they aren't breaking anything. If they
really want that future flexibility, they have to put some pressure on
the Windows Installer team to support managed Installers.
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