I wonder if you are using the right API in the first place. From the
documentation at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa384247(v=vs.85).aspx:
Note WinINet does not support server implementations. In addition, it should
not be used from a service. For server implementations or services use
Microsoft Windows HTTP Services
(WinHTTP)<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa384273(v=vs.85).aspx>.
Since Windows Installer is a service and it is what is running the MSI, your
custom action would be running like a service. Unfortunately, the docs don’t
list why you shouldn’t use WinINet.
From: Rob Mensching [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2013 8:48 AM
To: Windows Installer XML toolset developer mailing list
Subject: Re: [WiX-devs] Memory storage in thread of Custom Action
No.
On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 6:43 AM, Yun Li
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Thanks, can I force or configure the process to go away when the custom action
returns? Which will resolve my thread problem.
On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 10:29 PM, Rob Mensching
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Yes plus there is no guarantee the process won't go away or that your CA DLL
won't get put into a different process. Best to assume as I described above,
your process always goes away.
On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 6:10 AM, Yun Li
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Hi,
In my speculation, when WIX execute a custom action, it will do the following:
(My custom action is in a DLL written with C++)
1. If there is no process for custom actions, it will create a process.
2. Load the DLL.
3. Execute the custom action function
4. Unload the DLL.
However, the process won't exit after the custom action returns. (WIX will
create one process for InstallUISequence custom actions, and one for
InstallExecuteSequence custom actions).
If I understand correctly of the above, then my problem will be:
When the DLL is unloaded, there were threads created in the custom action
function still running on the code of the DLL, then my thread get crashed.
Is my understanding right?
Thank you very much for your help!
Thanks,
Yun
On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 11:42 PM, Rob Mensching
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
1. The Windows Installer creates separate processes for Custom Actions. The WiX
toolset does the same for managed custom actions for the reasons Jacob pointed
out.
2. Threads execute independently in a process. Unless you write code to ensure
one thread outlasts another (Thread.Join?) there is no guarantee which threads
still exists as threads exit.
On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 8:45 PM, Yun Li
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
I'm using C++, and the thread is created when I initialize a HTTP request in
custom action, i.e., it is created by Windows WinInet API HttpSendRequest().
The http callback thread crashes when the custom action finishes.
There will be an exception dialog appear when this problem happens, but the
installation can continue to finish, seems it doesn't influence the main
install process.
On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 12:27 PM, Hoover, Jacob
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
How exactly are you creating this thread? What language and framework are you
using?
Sent from my iPhone
On Feb 17, 2013, at 8:48 PM, "Yun Li"
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Thanks for you reply.
So if I understand correctly, actually WIX will create a process for each
custom action. However, I can't figure out why the http thread created in the
custom action doesn't exit when the process exit, it continues to execute and
leads to a crash when try to access heap memories in the process.
Is there a way to resolve this?
Thanks!
Yun
On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 12:12 AM, Hoover, Jacob
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
I believe this is caused by any .net ca being done in a separate stub process.
Prior to .net 4, you could only have one version of the clr loaded during the
life of the process. The wix fix which allows us to overcome this is using
child stub processes and ipc to overcome this.
On Feb 16, 2013, at 7:26 AM, "Yun Li"
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Hi, WIX Devs
Thanks for such a great tool!
I have a problem developing my own installers with Wix.
I defined several custom actions in a DLL, these functions share a same
behavior that they need to send the instrumentation data to our server through
HTTP request.
When WIX calls a custom action, as my observation, it starts a new thread for
the function, and the thread exits after the function is returned.
However, the problem is when the thread exits, the heap storage created in the
custom action thread is also removed! Which leads to a crash when HTTP callback
thread tries to access the objects created in the heap.
What described above is only my observation, I just want to confirm whether
this is really the memory management method of thread adopted by WIX (something
like ThreadLocal, if I understand correctly), therefore we can think about
other ways for solution.
Thanks,
Yun
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