Wix Bootstrapper MSI-Package logging, how?

Question

I have a bootstrapper that installs a MSI-package.

How can i achieve that at least the msi-package-installation gets logged( verbose logging )? And where can i set the log-file-path? Because I won't be able to log everything i guess?

And no, i don't want a cmd-solution , i need to implement this into my setup

Found LogPathVariable, but don't really know how it works?

<MsiPackage SourceFile="$(var.Setup.TargetPath)" LogPathVariable="" />

Googled arround many times and havn't found a solution for this problem, any help?

Answer 1

The default case (no LogPathVariable set) will create logs in C:\\Users\\username\\AppData\\Local\\Temp the MSI logs will be verbose, there will also be a log for the bootstrapper.

For a custom destination you can create a Variable and set it

<Variable Name="MyLogDestination" Type="string" Value=path to where you want log created />

You could use one of the burn variables in conjunction with a partial path. I think

<Variable Name="MyLogDestination" Type="string" Value="[ProgramFiles6432Folder]\YourProduct\" /> 

might work though I've not tried it.

You would then put your variable name in the LogPathVariable

<MsiPackage SourceFile="$(var.Setup.TargetPath)" LogPathVariable="MyLogDestination" />

Answer 2

That's how I did:

Add Log element under Bundle:

 <Log PathVariable="LOGPATH_PROP" Disable="yes" Prefix='[WixBundleOriginalSource]' Extension=".txt" />

and then set the LogPathVariable to "LOGPATH_PROP" in MsiPackage element. The key is to set the Disable attribute to yes in Log element.

Answer 3

Both bundle installation and the packages logs will be created into %TEMP% (C:\\Users\\username\\AppData\\Local\\Temp).

The naming scheme for the log file is:

BundleName_yyyyMMddHHmmss.log

Where the date and time is when the installation started. For each chained MSI package, Burn automatically enables verbose logging. The chained package log file naming scheme is:

BundleName_yyyyMMddHHmmss_#_PackageId.log

Where # indicate the order that the package was applied. The same package may show up multiple times with #s if the installation failed and the package was removed during rollback. (for example BundleName_yyyyMMddHHmmss_002_FailedPackage_rollback.log)

In order to get the bundle installer location path you can use BootstrapperApplication.Engine.StringVariables[WixBundleLog] , in order to get the package log file you can use BootstrapperApplication.Engine.StringVariables[WixBundleLog_packageId] .

if you want to change the default location ( %TEMP% ) you can use the LogPathVariable attribute of the MsiPackage element to provide a custom log file name:

See: http://wixtoolset.org/documentation/manual/v3/xsd/wix/msipackage.html

Also: https://support.firegiant.com/hc/en-us/articles/230912207-Pass-Properties-to-MsiPackage-from-Bundle-

Answer 4

this will create empty logs folder for you...

<Directory Id="LOGSDIR" Name="logs">
    <Component Guid="GUID" Id="ID" KeyPath="no" NeverOverwrite="no" Permanent="no" Location="local" Permanent="no">
        <CreateFolder>
            <util:PermissionEx CreateChild="yes" CreateFile="yes" Delete="yes" DeleteChild="yes" Read="yes" ReadAttributes="yes" ReadExtendedAttributes="yes" ReadPermission="yes" Traverse="yes" GenericRead="yes" GenericWrite="yes" User="Everyone" />
        </CreateFolder>
    </Component>
</Directory>