Question

I have an InstallShield (InstallScript) installation, created using IS2009, that’s built automatically every night, and has been used successfully for years. A few days ago, installs started failing; progress reaches 99%, then an error dialog comes up claiming that there was an error installing a particular file; the specific message is “The system cannot find the file specified”.

1. Reproducible on both WinXP and Win7.

2. This isn’t due to any change in the installer; those files have been untouched for weeks/months

3. It’s the same file every time, though it has some text appended to its name, and has an .rra extension; from what I’ve read, this is the temporary file that IS extracts to the Windows temp folder prior to moving it to its final destination.

4. Other files in the same folder and of the same type are installed successfully. It’s also not the last file to be installed; when the error is dismissed, the install quits and other files both in the same folder and elsewhere are missing as well.

5. The file is a regular dynamic file link that is part of a Feature; it’s not being manipulated with InstallScript or anything else that could introduce external problems. There’s no difference in linking between that file and many others that are installed successfully.

6. No errors during installer build; IS appears to find the files just fine, and I opened the built cab to verify that the file is inside.

7. No errors or related info appear in the .ilg log file or Windows event logs on the target machine.

8. I tried deleting the IS projects and all temporary build files, then checked out fresh copies from version control and rebuilt from scratch, but the problem persists.

How could this happen, and where else might I look in tracking down the cause?

Answer 1

It turns out that InstallShield scans for files with identical content and, to reduce installer file size, includes only one of the files. On install, the master file is written to disk as an rra, and then copied to create any other files with the same content.

In our case, we had recently added a new file, in a different location and with a different name, that had exactly the same content as an existing one. We remove the folder containing the original file as part of the install, assuming that nothing touches it until later in the install. But once the other file was introduced, InstallShield started writing the rra version to the folder early in the install, before the delete action. The delete removed the rra, which InstallShield was then unable to find when its turn actually arrived.

Hopefully this helps someone else down the road, since this particular InstallShield behavior, and the use of rra files in general, does not appear to be documented anywhere.