CPack WIX Generator¶

CPack WIX generator specific options

New in version 3.7: Support CPACK_COMPONENT_<compName>_DISABLED variable.

Variables specific to CPack WIX generator¶

The following variables are specific to the installers built on Windows using WiX.

CPACK_WIX_UPGRADE_GUID¶

Upgrade GUID (Product/@UpgradeCode)

Will be automatically generated unless explicitly provided.

It should be explicitly set to a constant generated globally unique identifier (GUID) to allow your installers to replace existing installations that use the same GUID.

You may for example explicitly set this variable in your CMakeLists.txt to the value that has been generated per default. You should not use GUIDs that you did not generate yourself or which may belong to other projects.

A GUID shall have the following fixed length syntax:

XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX

(each X represents an uppercase hexadecimal digit)

CPACK_WIX_PRODUCT_GUID¶

Product GUID (Product/@Id)

Will be automatically generated unless explicitly provided.

If explicitly provided this will set the Product Id of your installer.

The installer will abort if it detects a pre-existing installation that uses the same GUID.

The GUID shall use the syntax described for CPACK_WIX_UPGRADE_GUID.

CPACK_WIX_LICENSE_RTF¶

RTF License File

If CPACK_RESOURCE_FILE_LICENSE has an .rtf extension it is used as-is.

If CPACK_RESOURCE_FILE_LICENSE has an .txt extension it is implicitly converted to RTF by the WIX Generator. The expected encoding of the .txt file is UTF-8.

With CPACK_WIX_LICENSE_RTF you can override the license file used by the WIX Generator in case CPACK_RESOURCE_FILE_LICENSE is in an unsupported format or the .txt -> .rtf conversion does not work as expected.

CPACK_WIX_PRODUCT_ICON¶

The Icon shown next to the program name in Add/Remove programs.

If set, this icon is used in place of the default icon.

CPACK_WIX_UI_REF¶

This variable allows you to override the Id of the <UIRef> element in the WiX template.

The default is WixUI_InstallDir in case no CPack components have been defined and WixUI_FeatureTree otherwise.

CPACK_WIX_UI_BANNER¶

The bitmap will appear at the top of all installer pages other than the welcome and completion dialogs.

If set, this image will replace the default banner image.

This image must be 493 by 58 pixels.

CPACK_WIX_UI_DIALOG¶

Background bitmap used on the welcome and completion dialogs.

If this variable is set, the installer will replace the default dialog image.

This image must be 493 by 312 pixels.

CPACK_WIX_PROGRAM_MENU_FOLDER¶

Start menu folder name for launcher.

If this variable is not set, it will be initialized with CPACK_PACKAGE_NAME

New in version 3.16: If this variable is set to ., then application shortcuts will be created directly in the start menu and the uninstaller shortcut will be omitted.

CPACK_WIX_CULTURES¶

Language(s) of the installer

Languages are compiled into the WixUI extension library. To use them, simply provide the name of the culture. If you specify more than one culture identifier in a comma or semicolon delimited list, the first one that is found will be used. You can find a list of supported languages at: https://wixtoolset.org/docs/v3/wixui/wixui_localization/

CPACK_WIX_TEMPLATE¶

Template file for WiX generation

If this variable is set, the specified template will be used to generate the WiX wxs file. This should be used if further customization of the output is required. The template contents will override the effect of most CPACK_WIX_ variables.

If this variable is not set, the default MSI template included with CMake will be used.

CPACK_WIX_PATCH_FILE¶

Optional list of XML files with fragments to be inserted into generated WiX sources.

New in version 3.5: Support listing multiple patch files.

This optional variable can be used to specify an XML file that the WIX generator will use to inject fragments into its generated source files.

Patch files understood by the CPack WIX generator roughly follow this RELAX NG compact schema:

start = CPackWiXPatch

CPackWiXPatch = element CPackWiXPatch { CPackWiXFragment* }

CPackWiXFragment = element CPackWiXFragment
{
    attribute Id { string },
    fragmentContent*
}

fragmentContent = element * - CPackWiXFragment
{
    (attribute * { text } | text | fragmentContent)*
}

Currently fragments can be injected into most Component, File, Directory and Feature elements.

New in version 3.3: The following additional special Ids can be used:

#PRODUCT for the <Product> element.
#PRODUCTFEATURE for the root <Feature> element.

New in version 3.7: Support patching arbitrary <Feature> elements.

New in version 3.9: Allow setting additional attributes.

The following example illustrates how this works.

Given that the WIX generator creates the following XML element:

<Component Id="CM_CP_applications.bin.my_libapp.exe" Guid="*"/>

The following XML patch file may be used to inject an Environment element into it:

<CPackWiXPatch>
  <CPackWiXFragment Id="CM_CP_applications.bin.my_libapp.exe">
    <Environment Id="MyEnvironment" Action="set"
      Name="MyVariableName" Value="MyVariableValue"/>
  </CPackWiXFragment>
</CPackWiXPatch>

CPACK_WIX_EXTRA_SOURCES¶

Extra WiX source files

This variable provides an optional list of extra WiX source files (.wxs) that should be compiled and linked. The full path to source files is required.

CPACK_WIX_EXTRA_OBJECTS¶

Extra WiX object files or libraries

This variable provides an optional list of extra WiX object (.wixobj) and/or WiX library (.wixlib) files. The full path to objects and libraries is required.

CPACK_WIX_EXTENSIONS¶: This variable provides a list of additional extensions for the WiX tools light and candle.

CPACK_WIX_<TOOL>_EXTENSIONS¶: This is the tool specific version of CPACK_WIX_EXTENSIONS. <TOOL> can be either LIGHT or CANDLE.

CPACK_WIX_<TOOL>_EXTRA_FLAGS¶

This list variable allows you to pass additional flags to the WiX tool <TOOL>.

Use it at your own risk. Future versions of CPack may generate flags which may be in conflict with your own flags.

<TOOL> can be either LIGHT or CANDLE.

CPACK_WIX_CMAKE_PACKAGE_REGISTRY¶

If this variable is set the generated installer will create an entry in the windows registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Kitware\CMake\Packages\<PackageName> The value for <PackageName> is provided by this variable.

Assuming you also install a CMake configuration file this will allow other CMake projects to find your package with the find_package() command.

CPACK_WIX_PROPERTY_<PROPERTY>¶

New in version 3.1.

This variable can be used to provide a value for the Windows Installer property <PROPERTY>

The following list contains some example properties that can be used to customize information under "Programs and Features" (also known as "Add or Remove Programs")

ARPCOMMENTS - Comments
ARPHELPLINK - Help and support information URL
ARPURLINFOABOUT - General information URL
ARPURLUPDATEINFO - Update information URL
ARPHELPTELEPHONE - Help and support telephone number
ARPSIZE - Size (in kilobytes) of the application

CPACK_WIX_ROOT_FEATURE_TITLE¶: New in version 3.7.

Sets the name of the root install feature in the WIX installer. Same as CPACK_COMPONENT_<compName>_DISPLAY_NAME for components.

CPACK_WIX_ROOT_FEATURE_DESCRIPTION¶: New in version 3.7.

Sets the description of the root install feature in the WIX installer. Same as CPACK_COMPONENT_<compName>_DESCRIPTION for components.

CPACK_WIX_SKIP_PROGRAM_FOLDER¶: New in version 3.7.

If this variable is set to true, the default install location of the generated package will be CPACK_PACKAGE_INSTALL_DIRECTORY directly. The install location will not be located relatively below ProgramFiles or ProgramFiles64.

Note

Installers created with this feature do not take differences between the system on which the installer is created and the system on which the installer might be used into account.

It is therefore possible that the installer e.g. might try to install onto a drive that is unavailable or unintended or a path that does not follow the localization or convention of the system on which the installation is performed.

CPACK_WIX_ROOT_FOLDER_ID¶

New in version 3.9.

This variable allows specification of a custom root folder ID. The generator specific <64> token can be used for folder IDs that come in 32-bit and 64-bit variants. In 32-bit builds the token will expand empty while in 64-bit builds it will expand to 64.

When unset generated installers will default installing to ProgramFiles<64>Folder.

CPACK_WIX_ROOT¶

This variable can optionally be set to the root directory of a custom WiX Toolset installation.

When unspecified CPack will try to locate a WiX Toolset installation via the WIX environment variable instead.

CPACK_WIX_CUSTOM_XMLNS¶: New in version 3.19.

This variable provides a list of custom namespace declarations that are necessary for using WiX extensions. Each declaration should be in the form name=url, where name is the plain namespace without the usual xmlns: prefix and url is an unquoted namespace url. A list of commonly known WiX schemata can be found here: https://wixtoolset.org/docs/v3/xsd/

CPACK_WIX_SKIP_WIX_UI_EXTENSION¶: New in version 3.23.

If this variable is set then the inclusion of WixUIExtensions is skipped, i.e. the -ext "WixUIExtension" command line is not included during the execution of the WiX light tool.

CPACK_WIX_ARCHITECTURE¶

New in version 3.24.

This variable can be optionally set to specify the target architecture of the installer. May for example be set to x64 or arm64.

When unspecified, CPack will default to x64 or x86.

CPACK_WIX_INSTALL_SCOPE¶

New in version 3.29.

This variable can be optionally set to specify the InstallScope of the installer:

perMachine

Create an installer that installs for all users and requires administrative privileges. Start menu entries created by the installer are visible to all users.

perUser

Not yet supported. This is reserved for future use.

NONE

Create an installer without any InstallScope attribute.

This is the default to preserve compatibility with CPack 3.28 and older.

Deprecated since version 3.29: This value is only for compatibility with the inconsistent behavior used by CPack 3.28 and older. The resulting installer requires administrative privileges and installs into the system-wide ProgramFiles directory, but the start menu entry and uninstaller registration are created only for the current user.

Warning

An installation performed by an installer created without any InstallScope cannot be cleanly updated or replaced by an installer with an InstallScope. In order to transition a project's installers from NONE to perMachine, the latter installer should be distributed with instructions to first manually uninstall any older version.

See https://wixtoolset.org/docs/v3/xsd/wix/package/

CPack WIX Generator¶

Variables specific to CPack WIX generator¶

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