Understand and document the CPack/NSIS mechanism under Windows.

In directory cmake/pack, we have the files

• NSIS.InstallOptions.ini.in
• NSIS.template.in How are they used? Grep over the entire source tree yields no clue.

To do: analyze, and document.

added CMake OS:Windows URGENT labels

changed the description

If file NSIS.template.in is removed, then the Windows CI build failes with

$ cpack -C Release -B ./installer .
CPack: Create package using NSIS
CPack: Install projects
CPack: - Install project: BornAgain [Release]
CPack: -   Install component: Libraries
CPack: -   Install component: Headers
CPack: -   Install component: Examples
CPack: -   Install component: Applications
CPack: -   Install component: Runtime
CPack: -   Install component: Unspecified
FixPack: Python wheel 'C:/GitLab-Runner/gitlab_builds/Rm3xJZPE/0/mlz/bornagain/build/py/wheel/BornAgain-22.0-cp311-cp311-win_amd64.whl' -> 'C:/GitLab-Runner/gitlab_builds/Rm3xJZPE/0/mlz/bornagain/build/installer/_CPack_Packages/win64/NSIS/BornAgain-22.0-python3.11-win64/Unspecified/python/3.11/wheel'
CPack: Create package
CPack Error: Problem running NSIS command: "C:/Program Files (x86)/NSIS/makensis.exe"  "C:/GitLab-Runner/gitlab_builds/Rm3xJZPE/0/mlz/bornagain/build/installer/_CPack_Packages/win64/NSIS/project.nsi"
Please check C:/GitLab-Runner/gitlab_builds/Rm3xJZPE/0/mlz/bornagain/build/installer/_CPack_Packages/win64/NSIS/NSISOutput.log for errors
CPack Error: Problem compressing the directory
CPack Error: Error when generating package: BornAgain

If only file NSIS.InstallOptions.ini.in is removed or if cmake/pack is removed from CMAKE_MODULE_PATH, then the Windows CI job succeeds:

cpack -C Release -B ./installer .
CPack: Create package using NSIS
CPack: Install projects
CPack: - Install project: BornAgain [Release]
CPack: -   Install component: Libraries
CPack: -   Install component: Headers
CPack: -   Install component: Examples
CPack: -   Install component: Applications
CPack: -   Install component: Runtime
CPack: -   Install component: Unspecified
FixPack: Python wheel 'C:/GitLab-Runner/gitlab_builds/Rm3xJZPE/0/mlz/bornagain/build/py/wheel/BornAgain-22.0-cp311-cp311-win_amd64.whl' -> 'C:/GitLab-Runner/gitlab_builds/Rm3xJZPE/0/mlz/bornagain/build/installer/_CPack_Packages/win64/NSIS/BornAgain-22.0-python3.11-win64/Unspecified/python/3.11/wheel'
CPack: Create package
CPack: - package: C:/GitLab-Runner/gitlab_builds/Rm3xJZPE/0/mlz/bornagain/build/installer/BornAgain-22.0-python3.11-win64.exe generated.
Uploading artifacts for successful job
...

Provenance: NSIS.template.in has been added by Gennady on 12sep13, unfortunately without documenting provenance of the code. The first 975 lines of the template can be found in many variations in the web, all with the lovely typo "sutff" for "stuff". They seem to go back to a source from 2003. Our file, however, is about 250 lines longer. The closest I could find is in a Mantid branch, https://code.ornl.gov/mantidproject/mantid/-/blob/10677_disable_button_on_user_file_reload/buildconfig/CMake/NSIS.template.in.

NSIS has been replaced by QtIFW, and the entire packaging machinery is documented in our deRSE24 contribution.

closed