Conda

Author: Faph (talk, contrib)

What is Conda?

Conda is a cross-language package and environment manager. It can be used to install NSIS itself and various plugins and header files.

Why use Conda for building NSIS installers?

Conda is particularly good at managing packages and installing required packages and its dependencies. NSIS plugins and macro header files can be distributed as conda packages. A repository of NSIS conda packages is available at the anaconda.org NSIS channel.

Conda typically runs scripts in isolated environments. Configuring continuous integration or build servers is straightforward.

How to use Conda

There are two possible approaches for building NSIS installers with conda:

1. Using 'conda execute'
2. Creating conda environments manually

Option 1: Using conda execute

Add this to the top of an NSIS source file:

# conda execute
# env:
#  - nsis
#  - plugin1
#  - plugin2
# channels:
#  - nsis
# run_with: makensis

Then compile the file like this:

conda execute yourinstaller.nsi

This will create a temporary isolated conda environment with NSIS and the listed plugins installed. You don't need to have NSIS installed first! Then it simply runs makensis as usual.

You will need to install miniconda (or the full blown anaconda first and then conda execute.

Option 2: Creating conda environments manually

TODO