> One other aspect is that MSI format is essentially opaque (correct me > if I'm wrong here). You are wrong: msiexec /a unpacks an MSI extracts the files from the MSI (documented as "administrative installation", meaning that the result of it can again be installed, as it will also produce a stripped MSI file with just the installation procedure). > With bdist_msi, if I want to get the compiled > binaries out for some reason (maybe to install them in a virtual > environment or some type of other custom build) I just unzip the file > - the exe header gets ignored. With bdist_msi, I have no idea if > there's any way of doing that. It's little known, but was always well supported. See also http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.4/msi/ > Also, there are fewer people with expertise in MSI format. That's certainly true. > I suspect > that even a Unix developer could have a go at modifying the C code in > bdist_msi, it's not too MS-specific. s/bdist_msi/bdist_wininst/ > I don't know if that's possible for bdist_msi. No need to modify C code - it's all pure Python :-) However, I agree that's beside the point: you do need to understand MSI fairly well for modifying bdist_msi. I'm skeptical with your assertion that a Unix developer could contribute to bdist_wininst though without a Windows installation - you have to test this stuff or else it will break. > Speaking personally, the msilib documentation is pretty > unreadable, as I don't know anything about the MSI format. Whenever > I've tried reading the MS documentation in the past, I've found it > pretty impenetrable (a link to a simple tutorial, and some examples of > use, in the msilib documentation might help). If somebody would volunteer to write a tutorial, I could provide input. I'm clearly unqualified to write such a document, both for language barrier reasons, and because I continue to fail guessing what precisely it is that people don't understand. Regards, Martin
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