Installing mutual exclusive Versions of Programs - Revision history

Anders: Add link to SF tracker

2026-04-09T21:26:57Z

Add link to SF tracker

â† Older revision		Revision as of 21:26, 9 April 2026
Line 62:		Line 62:

	It would then be impossible to unpack both variants at once.		It would then be impossible to unpack both variants at once.

			See also:
			* [https://sourceforge.net/p/nsis/feature-requests/581/ Feature request #581]
	[[Category:Code Examples]]		[[Category:Code Examples]]

ChrFranke: Fix explanation due to initial false assumption about directory structure in installers

2026-01-12T14:31:17Z

Fix explanation due to initial false assumption about directory structure in installers

â† Older revision		Revision as of 14:31, 12 January 2026
Line 1:		Line 1:
	~~An undocumented side effect of <span style="font~~-~~family: monospace, monospace;">SetOutPath<~~/~~span>~~ is		[https://7-zip.org/ 7-Zip] allows to unpack NSIS installers which is occasionally very useful.
	~~that it also affects~~ the directory ~~where~~ the ~~files specified by~~		There is no directory structure in an installer.
	<span style="font-family: monospace, monospace;">~~File~~</span> ~~are located in the installer archive~~.		7-zip heuristically tries the deduce the installed directory structure by analyzing the NSIS script,
			in particular from the compiled versions of
			<span style="font-family: monospace, monospace;">SetOutPath</span> statements.

	The order in the ~~source file~~ instead of the execution order during installation is relevant in this case.		The static order in the script instead of the execution order during installation is relevant in this case.
	This ~~difference~~ could be used to ~~place mutual exclusive versions of programs in separate archive~~		This could be used to let 7-Zip unpack files to subdirectories which differ from installation subdirectories.
	~~directories.~~

	~~This assumes that this undocumented feature will not be changed in future NSIS releases~~.

	For a real world use case, please see the		For a real world use case, please see the
Line 32:		Line 31:
	${IfNot} ${SectionIsSelected} ${X64}		${IfNot} ${SectionIsSelected} ${X64}
	Goto +2		Goto +2
	SetOutPath "$INSTDIR\bin32" ; never executed but sets ~~archive~~ dir to 'bin32'		SetOutPath "$INSTDIR\bin32" ; never executed but sets unpack dir to 'bin32'
	File 'build\x86\${name}'		File 'build\x86\${name}'
	${Else}		${Else}
	Goto +2		Goto +2
	SetOutPath "$INSTDIR\bin64" ; never executed but sets ~~archive~~ dir to 'bin64'		SetOutPath "$INSTDIR\bin64" ; never executed but sets unpack dir to 'bin64'
	File 'build\x86_64\${name}'		File 'build\x86_64\${name}'
	${EndIf}		${EndIf}
	!macroend		!macroend

	SetOutPath "$INSTDIR" ; sets install path		SetOutPath "$INSTDIR\bin" ; sets install path
	!insertmacro FileExe "one.exe"		!insertmacro FileExe "one.exe"
	!insertmacro FileExe "two.exe"		!insertmacro FileExe "two.exe"
	SectionEnd		SectionEnd

	</highlight-nsis>		</highlight-nsis>

	~~The installer~~ will then ~~contain~~ the following ~~directories and files~~:		7-Zip will then detect the following path names:

	bin32/one.exe		bin32/one.exe
Line 55:		Line 53:
	bin64/two.exe		bin64/two.exe

	~~The following files will be installed from either~~		Without the skipped <span style="font-family: monospace, monospace;">SetOutPath</span>
	<span style="font-family: monospace, monospace;">~~bin32~~</span> or		statements, 7-Zip would detect the following path names:
	~~<span style="font~~-~~family: monospace, monospace;">bin64</span> directory~~:

	~~$INSTDIR~~/one.exe		bin/one.exe
	~~$INSTDIR~~/two.exe		bin/one.exe
			bin/two.exe
			bin/two.exe

			It would then be impossible to unpack both variants at once.
	[[Category:Code Examples]]		[[Category:Code Examples]]

ChrFranke: First

2026-01-08T17:35:52Z

First

New page

An undocumented side effect of SetOutPath is
that it also affects the directory where the files specified by
File are located in the installer archive.

The order in the source file instead of the execution order during installation is relevant in this case.
This difference could be used to place mutual exclusive versions of programs in separate archive
directories.

This assumes that this undocumented feature will not be changed in future NSIS releases.

For a real world use case, please see the
[https://github.com/smartmontools/smartmontools/blob/970ef448f928ed38ff4b1622005b36ecdb699cac/src/os_win32/installer.nsi#L122 smartmontools installer].

=== Example ===

<highlight-nsis>
Name "Installer"
OutFile "install.exe"
RequestExecutionLevel user
InstallDir "$DESKTOP\nsis-test"

!include "LogicLib.nsh"

Page components
Page instfiles

Section "64-bit version" X64
SectionEnd

Section "Programs"
!macro FileExe name
${IfNot} ${SectionIsSelected} ${X64}
Goto +2
SetOutPath "$INSTDIR\bin32" ; never executed but sets archive dir to 'bin32'
File 'build\x86\${name}'
${Else}
Goto +2
SetOutPath "$INSTDIR\bin64" ; never executed but sets archive dir to 'bin64'
File 'build\x86_64\${name}'
${EndIf}
!macroend

SetOutPath "$INSTDIR" ; sets install path
!insertmacro FileExe "one.exe"
!insertmacro FileExe "two.exe"
SectionEnd

</highlight-nsis>

The installer will then contain the following directories and files:

bin32/one.exe
bin64/one.exe
bin32/two.exe
bin64/two.exe

The following files will be installed from either
bin32 or
bin64 directory:

$INSTDIR/one.exe
$INSTDIR/two.exe

[[Category:Code Examples]]