NSIS Installer for Windows

Shoes uses the NSIS program to create installers for Windows. It is sufficiently strange that it needs some additional documentation.

NSIS 3 for Linux

I'm using NSIS 3.03 which was released a few days ago. It includes the long strings patch needed for Shoes and provides for Multiple Language scripts (with unicode support) should Shoes ever get multi-lingual install scripts.

Building it is a bit of a puzzle but it can be done. I do it on Linux but OSX could do it if you work hard. You need the mingw cross compilers and a thing called scons which is a python based make or rake. It wants a Zlib1 (aka libz) that has been cross compiled to a windows dll.

ZLib

Get zlib-1.2.11.tar.gz, untar it and cd into it. It too has a unique build process. Create a script like this

!/bin/bash
PREFIXDIR=$HOME/Projects/nsis/Zlib-1.2.11-win32-x86
make -f win32/Makefile.gcc BINARY_PATH=$PREFIXDIR/bin INCLUDE_PATH=$PREFIXDIR/include LIBRARY_PATH=$PREFIXDIR/lib SHARED_MODE=1 PREFIX=i686-w64-mingw32- install

Run the script from inside zlib-1.2.11 directory and the dll will be placed in that PREFIXDIR.

NSIS 3.03

NSIS could be told many things that don't make a lot of sense to me. Just create a script - I call mine nsis.sh and chmod +x the script. Cd into the nsis-3.03-src directory and run the script.

scons PREFIX=/home/ccoupe/Projects/nsis/nsis3 ZLIB_W32=/home/ccoupe/Projects/nsis/Zlib-1.2.11-win3
2-x86 VERSION=3.03 UNICODE=yes NSIS_MAX_STRLEN=8192 install

That will build the Linux version (makensis) and the Windows version (makensis.exe) in the nsis3 directory. If you change the PREFIX to /usr/local then it would install there but you'd have to sudo and I like to avoid that. Of course, you have to call makensis with a full path instead of depending on $PATH and /usr/local. We have a fix.

xwin7-custom.yaml (Shoes 3.3.7 or better)

Add two lines.

Installer: nsis
InstallerLoc: /home/ccoupe/Projects/nsis/nsis3/bin/makensis

NSIS for Windows

It is also useful to build (cross build) NSIS for Windows and make an installer for it. To avoid confusion it's going to be called shoesnsis and the installer will be shoesnsis_setup.exe

Install NSIS 3.03 on Windows

We need a full copy of an installed NSIS. Download and install Nsis-3.03-setup.exe on Windows. Using the magic available to you with networks and tar or zip, get a copy of that and put it in ~/Projects/nsis/nsis-3.03-window Expand the archive. With luck or patience you'll have an NSIS directory in there. Tar that up so you'll have a copy

ccoupe@bronco:~/Projects/nsis/nsis-3.03-windows$ ls NSIS
Bin      Docs      makensis.exe   NSIS.chm      Plugins
Contrib  Examples  makensisw.exe  nsisconf.nsh  Stubs
COPYING  Include   Menu           NSIS.exe      uninst-nsis.exe

Update with the strlen fixes

Download the NSIS strlen zip. Expand it into a directory (nsis-3.03-strlen/ ) and make a tar for safety. We have to copy it's contents over the the NSIS directory seen in the step above. I made a short script, I call merge.sh

#!/bin/bash
tar xf NSIS.tgz
tar xf nsis-3.03-strlen.tgz
cp -R nsis-3.03-strlen/* NSIS/

After running the script you have an updated NSIS, on your linux box.

Create an Installer

I wish Nullsoft would offer that installer on their site but they don't. You and I can for Shoes users. I wish I could find the installer .nsh script the Nullsoft uses to build their installer. I couldn't. But we can modify the nsh that Shoes uses, change up some names and icons to make it a little shoes specific. Here's shoes-nsis.nsi :

; Shoes definitions
!define SHOES_NAME "shoesnsis"
!define SHOES_VERSION "3.03"
!define SHOES_PUBLISHER "shoesrb"
!define SHOES_WEB_SITE "http://shoesrb.com/"
!define SHOES_INST_KEY "Software\Hackety.org\${SHOES_NAME}"
!define SHOES_UNINST_KEY "Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\$
{SHOES_NAME}"
!define SHOES_UNINST_ROOT_KEY "HKLM"

SetCompressor /SOLID lzma

!include "MUI.nsh"
!include "LogicLib.nsh"
!include "FileFunc.nsh"
!include "FileAssociation.nsh"
;!include "EnvVarUpdate.nsh"

Var StartMenuFolder
Var UninstallerHasFinished

; MUI Settings
!define MUI_ABORTWARNING
!define MUI_ICON nsis3-install.ico
!define MUI_UNICON nsis3-uninstall.ico
!define MUI_WELCOMEPAGE_TITLE_3LINES
!define MUI_WELCOMEFINISHPAGE_BITMAP installer-1.bmp
!define MUI_HEADERIMAGE
!define MUI_HEADERIMAGE_RIGHT
!define MUI_HEADERIMAGE_BITMAP installer-2.bmp
!define MUI_COMPONENTSPAGE_NODESC

; MUI Pages
!insertmacro MUI_PAGE_WELCOME
!define MUI_PAGE_HEADER_TEXT "Shoes is MIT Licensed"
!define MUI_PAGE_HEADER_SUBTEXT "You are free to do as you please with Shoes."
!define MUI_LICENSEPAGE_TEXT_TOP "When you are ready to continue with Setup, cl
ick I Agree."
!define MUI_LICENSEPAGE_TEXT_BOTTOM " "
;!insertmacro MUI_PAGE_LICENSE "..\COPYING.txt"

; MUI Start Menu Folder Page Configuration
!define MUI_STARTMENUPAGE_DEFAULTFOLDER "${SHOES_NAME}"
!define MUI_STARTMENUPAGE_REGISTRY_ROOT "HKLM" 
!define MUI_STARTMENUPAGE_REGISTRY_KEY "${SHOES_INST_KEY}" 
!define MUI_STARTMENUPAGE_REGISTRY_VALUENAME "Start Menu Folder"

!insertmacro MUI_PAGE_STARTMENU Application $StartMenuFolder

!insertmacro MUI_PAGE_DIRECTORY
!insertmacro MUI_PAGE_INSTFILES
!define MUI_FINISHPAGE_NOREBOOTSUPPORT
!define MUI_FINISHPAGE_TITLE_3LINES
;!define MUI_FINISHPAGE_RUN "$INSTDIR\${SHOES_NAME}.exe"
!insertmacro MUI_PAGE_FINISH

; MUI uninstaller pages
!insertmacro MUI_UNPAGE_DIRECTORY
!insertmacro MUI_UNPAGE_INSTFILES
!insertmacro MUI_UNPAGE_FINISH

!insertmacro MUI_LANGUAGE "English"

; NSIS Output information
Name "${SHOES_NAME} ${SHOES_VERSION}"
OutFile "${SHOES_NAME}_setup.exe"
InstallDir "$PROGRAMFILES\${SHOES_NAME}"
InstallDirRegKey HKLM "${SHOES_INST_KEY}" ""
RequestExecutionLevel admin

ShowInstDetails show
ShowUnInstDetails show

Section "MainSection" SEC01
   SetOutPath "$INSTDIR"
   SetOverwrite ifnewer

   !insertmacro MUI_STARTMENU_WRITE_BEGIN Application
      CreateDirectory "$SMPROGRAMS\${SHOES_NAME}"
      CreateShortCut "$SMPROGRAMS\${SHOES_NAME}\${SHOES_NAME}.lnk" "$INSTDIR\ma
kensisw.exe"
      ;CreateShortCut "$SMPROGRAMS\${SHOES_NAME}\Manual.lnk" "$INSTDIR\${SHOES_
NAME}.exe" "--manual"
      ;CreateShortCut "$SMPROGRAMS\${SHOES_NAME}\Packager.lnk" "$INSTDIR\${SHOE
S_NAME}.exe" "--package"
   !insertmacro MUI_STARTMENU_WRITE_END
   
   ;CreateShortCut "$DESKTOP\${SHOES_NAME}.lnk" "$INSTDIR\${SHOES_NAME}.exe"
   
   File /r /x nsis NSIS\*.*
   
   ;${EnvVarUpdate} $0 "PATH" "A" HKLM $INSTDIR
   ;${registerExtension} "$INSTDIR\${SHOES_NAME}.exe" ".shy" "Shoes Application
"
   ;DetailPrint "Building Incon cache, this may take a while..."
   ;ExecWait '"$INSTDIR\gtk-update-icon-cache.exe" "$INSTDIR\share\icons\Adwait
a"'
SectionEnd

Section -AdditionalIcons
   CreateShortCut "$SMPROGRAMS\${SHOES_NAME}\Uninstall.lnk" "$INSTDIR\uninst.ex
e"
SectionEnd

Section -Post
   WriteUninstaller "$INSTDIR\uninst.exe"
   WriteRegStr HKLM "${SHOES_INST_KEY}" "" "$INSTDIR\makensisw.exe"
   ;WriteRegStr HKLM "${SHOES_INST_KEY}" "base" "$INSTDIR"
   WriteRegStr ${SHOES_UNINST_ROOT_KEY} "${SHOES_UNINST_KEY}" "DisplayName" "$(
^Name)"
   WriteRegStr ${SHOES_UNINST_ROOT_KEY} "${SHOES_UNINST_KEY}" "UninstallString"
 "$INSTDIR\uninst.exe"
   WriteRegStr ${SHOES_UNINST_ROOT_KEY} "${SHOES_UNINST_KEY}" "DisplayIcon" "$I
NSTDIR\makensisw.exe"
   WriteRegStr ${SHOES_UNINST_ROOT_KEY} "${SHOES_UNINST_KEY}" "DisplayVersion" 
"${SHOES_VERSION}"
   WriteRegStr ${SHOES_UNINST_ROOT_KEY} "${SHOES_UNINST_KEY}" "URLInfoAbout" "$
{SHOES_WEB_SITE}"
   WriteRegStr ${SHOES_UNINST_ROOT_KEY} "${SHOES_UNINST_KEY}" "Publisher" "${SH
OES_PUBLISHER}"
  
   ${GetSize} "$INSTDIR" "/S=0K" $0 $1 $2
   IntFmt $0 "0x%08X" $0
   WriteRegDWORD HKLM "${SHOES_UNINST_KEY}" "EstimatedSize" "$0"
SectionEnd

Section Uninstall
   !insertmacro MUI_STARTMENU_GETFOLDER Application $StartMenuFolder

   ;Delete "$DESKTOP\${SHOES_NAME}.lnk"
   ;Delete "$SMPROGRAMS\${SHOES_NAME}\Manual.lnk"
   ;Delete "$SMPROGRAMS\${SHOES_NAME}\Packager.lnk"
   Delete "$SMPROGRAMS\${SHOES_NAME}\${SHOES_NAME}.lnk"
   Delete "$SMPROGRAMS\${SHOES_NAME}\Uninstall.lnk"

   RMDir "$SMPROGRAMS\${SHOES_NAME}"
   RMDir /r "$INSTDIR\*.*"
   RMDir "$INSTDIR"
   
   ;${unregisterExtension} ".shy" "Shoes Application"
   ;${un.EnvVarUpdate} $0 "PATH" "R" HKLM $INSTDIR

   DeleteRegKey ${SHOES_UNINST_ROOT_KEY} "${SHOES_UNINST_KEY}"
   DeleteRegKey HKLM "${SHOES_INST_KEY}"
   SetAutoClose true
   StrCpy $UninstallerHasFinished true
SectionEnd

Function un.onInit
   MessageBox MB_ICONQUESTION|MB_YESNO|MB_DEFBUTTON2 "Uninstall $(^Name)?" IDYE
S +2
FunctionEnd

Function un.onUninstSuccess
   ${If} $UninstallerHasFinished == true
      HideWindow
      MessageBox MB_ICONINFORMATION|MB_OK "$(^Name) has been uninstalled."
   ${EndIf}
FunctionEnd

And a small script, package.sh, to use the Linux nsis to create the shoesnsis_setup.exe

#!/bin/bash
../nsis3/bin/makensis shoes-nsis.nsi

You'll need some more files to actually use that shoe-nsis.nsi script. These can be found in Shoes in lib/package/nsis/* .I grabbed a copy of some icons out of the NSIS directory so it's not using the Shoes icon. Here what I have in ~/Projects/nsis/nsis-3.03-windows/

ccoupe@bronco:~/Projects/nsis/nsis-3.03-windows$ ls
EnvVarUpdate.nsh     NSIS                  NSIS.tgz
FileAssociation.nsh  nsis-3.03-strlen      package.sh
installer-1.bmp      nsis-3.03-strlen.tgz  README.md
installer-2.bmp      nsis3-install.ico     shoes-nsis.nsi
merge.sh             nsis3-uninstall.ico   shoesnsis_setup.exe

To test it you have to move the shoesnsis_setup.exe to Windows, run the installer and use it to create something that can be installed. No so simple b