I downloaded this file:
PortableApps.com_Suite_Setup_1.5.2_en.exe
It's a Windows executable, of course. It works fine on Windows.
The installer just extracts a directory tree, it seems. I'm wondering if there's a way to "rip" this directory tree out of the installer, and obtain the files without having to run the installer?
Why would I want to do this? Reason is, I'm deploying a tool on Linux to automate the creation of many USB flash drives, in bulk.
I'm putting Knoppix on them, to make them bootable. The entire USB flash drive creation process is easy to automate, on Linux. I'd love to also throw PortableApps on them.
I could just run the PortableApps installer on Windows and then manually zip up the resulting directory, but that seems "unclean" and there's the possibility that Windows could change the timestamps on the files or otherwise change some subtle thing like that.
I'm trying to do a fully automated installation, that's as pure as possible.
Thanks for any help that can be provided!
Josh
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You may be able to do it with 7-Zip. On Windows at least, it's able to extract them (the directory structure can seem a bit weird in NSIS installers though).
However, the folder icons may not show up properly if you extract or copy it as there are some quirks to getting the file system to actually use the desktop.ini file.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
Thanks!
I installed "p7zip" (port of 7-Zip to Linux). It worked, to extract the files!
There's two interesting toplevel directory names:
$PLUGINSDIR
$[31]
The $PLUGINSDIR name is also referenced here, at this lower directory:
./PortableApps/FirefoxPortable/Data/settings/$PLUGINSDIR
I'm curious what the installer does, to fix up these paths. A few "mv" commands in a shell script, and I should be good to go, or is there more to it than that?
Thanks again for your help.
Down with U3!
Look at the installer source code and you'll see where the $PLUGINSDIR and $[31] come from (sort of). Things are just put wherever by NSIS internally - the File command is used in the script which is much more user-/developer-friendly.
I don't happen to have a copy of the Platform installer handy now so I can't tell you exactly what goes where. But install it in Windows and you should get an idea.
Installing it on Windows or Wine and then munging it into a tarball will be the easiest way of doing it.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
Is there anything wrong with WINE?
Insert original signature here with Greasemonkey Script.
Nothing's wrong with WINE, I just wanted to do it 100% in Linux, as it would be part of an automatic USB drive preparation program that runs on Linux.
Down with U3!
Then you can still do it in WINE.
I think the installers have a command switch
/dthat lets you silent install them.Insert original signature here with Greasemonkey Script.
Maybe you could recompile UniExtract for Linux and use this. But I looked just into this on my Windows machine and it looks as if you'd have to rearrange the files as they are in a wrong directory structure.
"Der Klügere gibt nach, deshalb regieren Dumme die Welt."
That's a bit tricky. Not all programs can just be randomly recompiled for another operating system.
The file structure is a bit messed up since it's an NSIS installer. I have no idea why it does that though.
i believe the uniextractor interface to be autoit. The different parts are other extracting engines.
his best bet for those is running WINE
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
I thought it was AutoHotKey
But... yep, it's AutoIt. Can't believe UniExtract is OSS
its open source because the extraction engines he's using are open source. Thus, he can't close the source of uni extract. Well, not to follow the gpl.
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
why not just make one drive that works then image it?
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world