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https://github.com/jrsoftware/issrc

Inno Setup is a free installer for Windows programs. First introduced in 1997, Inno Setup today rivals and even surpasses many commercial installers in feature set and stability.
https://github.com/jrsoftware/issrc

inno-setup installer

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Inno Setup is a free installer for Windows programs. First introduced in 1997, Inno Setup today rivals and even surpasses many commercial installers in feature set and stability.

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README 

        
Inno Setup

==========



Copyright (C) 1997-2024 Jordan Russell. All rights reserved.

Portions Copyright (C) 2000-2024 Martijn Laan. All rights reserved.

For conditions of distribution and use, see LICENSE.TXT.



Source code README



Getting Started

---------------



1. **Obtain sources**



    First you need to download the sources from Github. From the command line do:



    ```

    > git clone https://github.com/jrsoftware/issrc.git issrc

    > cd issrc

    > git submodule init

    > git submodule update

    ```



    If you don't have the Git client (`git`), get it from:



    https://git-scm.com/



    To update your sources from the command line do:

    ```

    > git pull

    > git submodule update

    ```



    To be able to contribute to Inno Setup, clone your own fork instead of

    cloning the main Inno Setup repository, commit your work on topic branches

    and make pull requests. See [CONTRIBUTING.md].



2. **Install Embarcadero Delphi**



   We compile all of Inno Setup's projects under Delphi 11.3 Alexandria.



   There's a free version of Delphi available called the Community Edition.

   See https://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi/starter/free-download.



3. **Install Microsoft HTML Help Workshop**



   Install Microsoft HTML Help Workshop if you haven't already done so.

   See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/desktop/htmlhelp/microsoft-html-help-downloads and

   http://web.archive.org/web/20160201063255/http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/A/9/0A939EF6-E31C-430F-A3DF-DFAE7960D564/htmlhelp.exe



   Note: Microsoft HTML Help Workshop is only needed to be able to compile the

   help file.



4. **Build Inno Setup**



   Unfortunately, Embarcadero has removed command line compilation support

   from the Community Edition, which means there's two different build

   scripts.



   Community Edition: To build all files run **build-ce.bat** and follow the

   instructions.



   Otherwise: To build all files run **build.bat** and follow the instructions.



   To just compile Inno Setup run **compile.bat** and follow the instructions.

   This batch file cannot be used with the Community Edition, open

   Projects\Projects.groupproj instead.



   To just compile the Inno Setup help file and its web version run

   **ISHelp\ISHelpGen\compile.bat** and **ISHelp\compile.bat** and follow the

   instructions. The former batch file cannot be used with the

   Community Edition, open Projects\Projects.groupproj instead.



Component Installation

----------------------



If you intend to view or modify the Setup project's forms, you must install

the following component units, which can be found in the [Components]

directory.



- BidiCtrls

- BitmapImage

- FolderTreeView

- NewCheckListBox

- NewNotebookReg

- NewProgressBar

- NewStaticText

- PasswordEdit

- RichEditViewer



If you intend to view or modify the Compil32 project's forms, you must

additionally install the following components.



- DropListBox

- NewTabSet



The [Components] directory contains a Components.dpk file which you can use to

install all these components.



If you only want to edit code, then you may skip installation of the

components, and choose "Cancel" if the Delphi IDE tells you a class can't

be found.



The [Components] directory also includes various units that are not

installable components; however, they are still considered components

because they can function independently from Inno Setup.



Overview

--------



Inno Setup consists of six projects:



**Compil32** - This is the GUI front-end for the compiler, also known as

the Compiler IDE. Compil32 does not do the actual compilation itself; it

relegates it to ISCmplr.dll. If the ISCmplr project is changed, you

normally don't need to recompile Compil32 since it's essentially a text

editor, and is not affected by internal changes to the compiler.



**ISCC** - This is the command-line front-end to the compiler. Like

Compil32, it depends on ISCmplr.dll to do the actual compiling.



**ISCmplr** - This is a DLL which is loaded by Compil32 and ISCC to compile

scripts. The actual compiler code is in Compiler.SetupCompiler.pas. See

Shared.CompInt.pas for the various structures and function declarations used

to interface to the DLL.



**ISPP** - This is a DLL implementing Inno Setup's preprocessor interface.



**Setup** - This is the actual "Setup" program. It displays the wizard, and

performs all (un)installation-related tasks.



**SetupLdr** - This is the "setup loader." It self-extracts a compressed

Setup program into the user's TEMP directory and runs it from there. It also

displays the "This will install..." and /HELP message boxes.



How do the projects link together?



- Compil32, ISCmplr, ISPP, Setup, and SetupLdr share the unit Shared.Struct.pas.

  This unit contains various data structures and constants shared by the projects.

  If Shared.Struct.pas is changed, you usually will need to recompile all these

  projects so that everything is in synch.



- There are more units which are shared between projects. Search the .dpr

  files of the projects if you aren't sure if a project uses a particular

  unit.



Source code tips

----------------



- When building the projects in Debug mode it outputs to [Projects\Bin] and when

  debugging it will run from within this directory. To prepare this directory

  with some extra files you must run **Projects\Bin\synch-isfiles.bat**.



- When debugging the Setup project you should first build all projects in Debug

  mode, then run the Compil32 project and compile the Debug.iss script which

  should open automatically, and finally open and run the Setup project.

  This way you can simulate an actual installation while running under the

  Delphi debugger.

  

- When building the projects in Release mode it outputs to [Files].

  

- All of the forms in the Setup project, with the exception of Setup.MainForm.dfm, have

  Scaled set to False. This is because they dynamically scale themselves at

  run-time by calling a function named InitializeFont.



- A note for those curious: The Setup Compiler creates single EXE Setups by

  first creating the SETUP.EXE as usual, then concatenating the SETUP.0 and

  SETUP-1.BIN to the end of the SETUP.EXE, and finally modifying an internal

  data block in SETUP.EXE so it knows it's in "single EXE" form.



- To debug the uninstaller first run Setup.exe to completion with the

  ``/DETACHEDMSG`` command line parameter set. Afterwards copy uninst000.dat and

  uninst000.msg as setup.dat and setup.msg to the [Projects\Bin] directory in your

  issrc path. Then open the Setup project and set the command line parameters to

  ``/UNINSTMODE "/SECONDPHASE=` so that it's displayed in a monospaced font. This is

  a convention used throughout the help file. Example: `MinVersion`



Setting up Continuous Integration

---------------------------------



Inno Setup's source code includes a GitHub workflow that performs unattended builds

upon `push` events, it requires some setting up, though.



Note: The following instructions assume that you have a correctly-licensed version

of Delphi installed into `C:\Program Files (x86)\Embarcadero\Studio\20.0`. This may

not be a Community Edition because it does not support command line compilation.

Also ensure your current Delphi license still allows you to copy a subset of the

Delphi files to another machine for the specific purpose of supporting unattended

builds.



First, generate an encrypted `.zip` file containing the files needed to build

Inno Setup using [7-Zip]:



```

cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Embarcadero\Studio\20.0

"C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" a -mx9 -mem=AES256 -p"" ^

	%USERPROFILE%\issrc-build-env.zip ^

	bin\dcc32.exe bin\rlink32.dll bin\lnk*.dll ^

	lib/win32/release/Sys*.dcu lib/win32/release/*.res ^

	lib/win32/release/System.*.dcu lib/win32/release/System.Generics.*.dcu ^

	lib/win32/release/System.Internal.*.dcu lib/win32/release/System.Net.*.dcu ^

	lib/win32/release/System.Net.HttpClient.*.dcu lib/win32/release/System.Win.*.dcu ^

	lib/win32/release/Vcl.*.dcu lib/win32/release/Vcl.Imaging.*.dcu ^

	lib/win32/release/Winapi.*.dcu

```



Then, upload this encrypted file somewhere public, e.g. by attaching it to a comment

in a GitHub issue. After that, add this URL as a new repository

[secret] (at https://github.com/YOUR-USER-NAME/issrc/settings/secrets/actions), under the name

`ISSRC_BUILD_ENV_ZIP_URL`, and the password as `ISSRC_BUILD_ENV_ZIP_PASSWORD`.



Finally, indicate that your fork of the repository has those secrets, by adding the

topic `has-issrc-build-env` (click the gear icon next to the "About" label at

https://github.com/YOUR-USER-NAME/issrc to add the topic).



Once that's done, you're set! The next time you push a branch to your fork, the

workflow will be triggered automatically.



[CONTRIBUTING.md]: 

[Projects\Bin]: 

[Components]: 

[Files]: 

[Projects\Src\Compression.LZMACompressor\islzma]: 

[Projects\Src\Setup.HelperEXEs\Helper]: 

[Examples\MyProg]: 

[Projects\Src]: 

[Projects\Src\Compil32]: 

[Projects\Src\Compression.LZMADecompressor\Lzma2Decode]: 

[Projects\Src\Compression.LZMA1SmallDecompressor\LzmaDecode]: 

[Projects\Src\Compression.SevenZipDecoder\7zDecode]: 

[7-Zip]: https://www.7-zip.org/

[secret]: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/security-guides/encrypted-secrets