Question

I am attempting to remove one more step in my application’s release process by automatically retrieving versioning info from my executable (in this case, a .NET application).

Up to this point, I have been able to get by with a limited knowledge of NSIS, but I am quickly learning that this is not enough.

Step 1: Declare version info in executable

In AssemblyInfo.cs, I declare [assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.0.0.1")]. This successfully makes the version info appear in the compiled executable (under “File version” and “Product version”).

Step 2: Retrieve version info from executable

According to this article on “GetFileVersion”, importing “FileFunc.nsh” allows you to retrieve version info from an executable.

Code used:

Section
    Var /GLOBAL version
    ${GetFileVersion} "C:\test.exe" $version
    ...
SectionEnd

Step 3: Verify contents of function call

Based on section 5.1.7 of the documentation, I should be able to print to the command line during compile time using the “!echo” command. The difference between printing the contents of a variable (or a constant, etc) still confuses me, so I have tried all four of these options:

!echo $version
!echo "$version"
!echo "${version}"
!echo ${version}

This results in:

$version (InstallScript.nsi:15)
$version (InstallScript.nsi:16)
${version} (InstallScript.nsi:17)
${version} (InstallScript.nsi:18)

Step 4: Declare the installer metadata

Based on section 4.8.3, I should be able to add installer metadata via VIProductVersion and VIAddVersionKey.

VIProductVersion $version 
VIAddVersionKey "FileVersion" "$version"

In the built installer, this adds the string “$version” into the specified fields.

---

Is there a ToString() equivalent in NSIS? How can I access a variable’s contents? Does the print of the variable name mean that it has no contents? How can I verify that GetFileVersion is called correctly, executes correctly, and returns a value?

Answer 1

Edit: NSIS v3 now includes a !getdllversion preprocessor instruction, you only need the GetVersionLocal workaround if you are still using NSIS v2.

There are plans for a !getdllversionlocal in NSIS 2.47, for now you have to use this workaround:

outfile test.exe
requestexecutionlevel user

!macro GetVersionLocal file basedef
!verbose push
!verbose 1
!tempfile _GetVersionLocal_nsi
!tempfile _GetVersionLocal_exe
!appendfile "${_GetVersionLocal_nsi}" 'Outfile "${_GetVersionLocal_exe}"$\nRequestexecutionlevel user$\n'
!appendfile "${_GetVersionLocal_nsi}" 'Section$\n!define D "$"$\n!define N "${D}\n"$\n'
!appendfile "${_GetVersionLocal_nsi}" 'GetDLLVersion "${file}" $2 $4$\n'
!appendfile "${_GetVersionLocal_nsi}" 'IntOp $1 $2 / 0x00010000$\nIntOp $2 $2 & 0x0000FFFF$\n'
!appendfile "${_GetVersionLocal_nsi}" 'IntOp $3 $4 / 0x00010000$\nIntOp $4 $4 & 0x0000FFFF$\n'
!appendfile "${_GetVersionLocal_nsi}" 'FileOpen $0 "${_GetVersionLocal_nsi}" w$\nStrCpy $9 "${N}"$\n'
!appendfile "${_GetVersionLocal_nsi}" 'FileWrite $0 "!define ${basedef}1 $1$9"$\nFileWrite $0 "!define ${basedef}2 $2$9"$\n'
!appendfile "${_GetVersionLocal_nsi}" 'FileWrite $0 "!define ${basedef}3 $3$9"$\nFileWrite $0 "!define ${basedef}4 $4$9"$\n'
!appendfile "${_GetVersionLocal_nsi}" 'FileClose $0$\nSectionend$\n'
!system '"${NSISDIR}\makensis" -NOCD -NOCONFIG "${_GetVersionLocal_nsi}"' = 0
!system '"${_GetVersionLocal_exe}" /S' = 0
!delfile "${_GetVersionLocal_exe}"
!undef _GetVersionLocal_exe
!include "${_GetVersionLocal_nsi}"
!delfile "${_GetVersionLocal_nsi}"
!undef _GetVersionLocal_nsi
!verbose pop
!macroend

!insertmacro GetVersionLocal "$%windir%\Explorer.exe" MyVer_
VIProductVersion "${MyVer_1}.${MyVer_2}.${MyVer_3}.${MyVer_4}"
VIAddVersionKey "FileVersion" "${MyVer_1}.${MyVer_2}.${MyVer_3}.${MyVer_4}"

page instfiles
section
sectionend

This macro:

1. Creates a temporary .nsi file
2. Compiles the temporary .nsi to a temporary executable
3. Runs the temporary .exe
4. Deletes the two files (.nsi and .exe)
5. Returns an array containing the version info of the specified executable.