Logged Execution

Some bugs you encounter in your testing may be very difficult to reproduce, and occur only on systems which you do not have debugging access to. Under these circumstances, you can always try logged execution, in addition to the age-old method of displaying message boxes on the screen.

Logged Information

With the Windows Installer engine, logged execution will create a log file and record both the internal state of the installation (along with all variable values) and the native Windows Installer log inside a plain text file. Since all changes are pending until Apply Changes is called, the log will be created only after Apply Changes has been called.

With the Native Engine, logged execution will create a log file containing diagnostic information on each executed setup command. If the pre-defined variable $DELAYUNTIL_APPLYCHANGES$ is FALSE, the log will be written to as each setup command is executed individually; otherwise the log will be written to when Apply Changes has been called.

Adding Custom Information to the Log

You may add custom diagnostic information to the setup log anywhere in your MSIcode script by calling Write to Text File on the pre-defined variable $LOGGED$.

Enabling Logging

To execute a logged setup, use the following command line:

<setup.exe> /l=<path to logfile>

 Notes

1. If your logfile path contains spaces, enclose the full parameter (including the leading /l= part) inside double-quotes.
2. Specifying a file name only is not allowed. You must specify a full valid path in an existing folder, including drive and directory information.
3. It is also possible to enable logging programmatically within your MSIcode script. Set the value of the pre-defined variable $LOGGED$ to a valid, fully qualified file path to turn on logging. No double quotes should be used with this approach.

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