Setup.exe command line syntax

Specifies zero or more var=value pairs that allow you to set the value of symbolic variables from the command line.

Any values set on the command line override the values of the corresponding variables from the installation script. If a variable doesn't exist in the installation script, it is automatically created.

Note: If value contains spaces or special characters such as '<' and '>', you should quote the entire option as in "var=value". This allows you to use other symbolic variables as part of the value specification, for example "INSTALLDIR=<ProgramFilesFolder>\<ProductName>".

[InstallMate 9.2 and later] Specifies zero or more $comp=state pairs that allow you to set the selection state of components in your installer.

Any $comp=state instructions are evaluated during the InitComponents standard action (typically at the start of the DoFirstInstall action sequence) and override both the Initial state and the If condition true fields of the component, and any states that are loaded from the previously installed instance of the same product.

• The comp portion (without the leading '$') must specify the internal Name field of the component;
• The state portion must be an integer from 0 to 5 with the following meaning:

Note: $comp=state options are evaluated from left to right on the command line. For best results, we recommend that you specify higher-level components before their children if you want to change their selection state, because the selection state of a parent component may affect the available selection states of its children.

Use response.txt as a response file for further command line arguments.

A response file is a plain text file (encoded in the current ANSI code page, or UTF-8 with a leading BOM, or UTF-16 with its leading BOM) that contains one or more command line arguments separated by any combination of spaces, tabs, or newlines.

The syntax of the arguments in the response file is similar to the normal command line usage; in particular, any arguments that contain internal spaces must be "quoted". However, response files differ from normal command line syntax in the following ways:

• Input and output redirections ('<' and '>') and pipes ('|') have no effect because the command line processor (CMD.EXE, TCC.EXE, or similar) never sees the response file contents.
• As a corollary, inside a response file you can refer to symbolic variables with unquoted <varname> syntax, for example INSTALLDIR=<ProgramFilesFolder>\<ProductName>
• Environment variable references such as %APPDATA% are expanded inside a response file as they would be on the command line proper. To pass the literal string %APPDATA% as an argument to the program, you must use single 'quotes', for example '%APPDATA%'; double %% signs as on the command line do not prevent expansion. Only simple expansion is performed; CMD.EXE features such as %varname:str1=str2% (string substitution) and others are not supported.
• No other command line processor features apply.

Response files may be nested and will be processed if and when they appear on the command line and in other response files, and the same left-to-right processing rules apply when conflicting arguments are encountered (i.e., the rightmost argument "wins").

Internal comment lines

[InstallMate 9.39 and later] Response files may contain internal comment lines for documentation purposes; the contents of a comment line are ignored by the program.

Comment lines must start with '#' in the first column of the line and extend up to and including the next line break or the end of the file, whichever comes first. '#' characters that appear after the first column of a line are not treated as comments and are considered part of the argument in which they appear. Some examples:

# This is a comment line
 # But this is not (starts in column 2)
"# Nor is this"
/nor#this
nor#this.txt
# But this is another comment

Initial run mode if no other run mode options are specified on the command line.

• If this is a new installation, then the installer automatically switches to Installer mode (see next).
• Else if Setup is running interactively, the user is prompted to select the desired run mode.
• Else Setup is running in silent mode and the installer fails with exit code 7 (Invalid run mode; see Exit codes below).

Corresponds to TsuRunMode value 0.

Force Installer mode. The second form allows you to specify an installation folder. It is equivalent to /install followed by INSTALLDIR=installfolder.

You can use absolute paths such as C:\MyApp or symbolic variables such as <ProgramFilesFolder>\MyApp for installfolder. Be sure to quote the entire option if installfolder contains spaces or symbolic variables, or Windows will misinterpret the command line.

Note: Because you are essentially assigning a new value to the INSTALLDIR folder alias, installfolder should not refer to <INSTALLDIR> either directly or indirectly to avoid infinite recursion.

Corresponds to TsuRunMode value 1.

Force Registrar mode.

In Registrar mode, the installer only performs post-boot file registration. This is required if one or more files were in use during the original installation. In that case, Setup automatically registers itself to run in Registrar mode after the next system reboot.

Note: This option is ignored by new installations, which always run as Installer.

Corresponds to TsuRunMode value 3.

Force Uninstaller mode.

Completely removes your application from the customer's computer.

Note: This option is ignored by new installations, which always run as Installer.

Corresponds to TsuRunMode value 2.

Force Repair mode.

Re-installs your application unchanged, usually to repair a damaged installation. This requires access to the installer's original distribution media.

Note: This option is ignored by new installations, which always run as Installer.

Corresponds to TsuRunMode value 4.

Force Resume mode.

Resumes a partially completed installation. This is typically used to resume an installation after the system was restarted due to the installation of one or more prerequisites.

Note: This option is ignored by new installations, which always run as Installer.

Corresponds to TsuRunMode value 5.

Require Administrator rights (equivalent to /a5)
Set the installation level to n.

This option modifies the Installation level attribute set on the Installer options project page. The current installation level is available through the TsuInstallLevel variable. The level n can be one of the following:

Set reboot mode n. This option determines how Setup handles system restarts at the end of the installation or removal process. The current reboot mode is available and may be set through the TsuRebootMode variable. The available levels are:

Set integrity checking mode n. This option determines how Setup checks the integrity of the installation package at the start of the installation. The available levels are:

Set the error mask to mask. The error mask determines which runtime errors will terminate the installation. The initial mask is set on the Installer options project page; the /e option adds another mask to this. The effective error mask is initial_mask & mask, where '&' represents the binary 'and' operation.

To enable specific error types, set mask to the combination of the error values shown below. If you leave out an error type, it is ignored by the installer. To make the installer ignore all runtime errors, specify /e0. This is not recommended, because it may leave the product partially installed or partially uninstalled. However, in emergencies it may help to install or remove the product.

Note: Even if you include an error type in the /e option, it will only terminate the installation if it's also enabled on the Installer options project page. In other words: you can only remove error types, not add them.

You may specify mask in decimal or hexadecimal; in the latter case, you must prefix it with 0x. For example, /e255 and /e0xFF are equivalent.

Force the installation to continue even in the face of errors.

This option is equivalent to /e0 plus internal overrides of failed system requirements, failed access checks, etc. Some errors, for example a damaged installation archive, remain fatal.

Show all valid locale languages in a multilingual installer, even if they don't use the current ANSI code page. This might result in some text being replaced by ??? characters or mapped to the wrong glyphs.

Note: This option applies to the ANSI versions of Setup.exe only; Unicode versions always show all valid locale languages. See Setup stubs for an explanation of the various available Setup.exe variations.

Use langid as the user interface language, if the installer has been localized for this language on the Languages page. If not, then the language selection process as for the Languages: Multilingual, auto package option is used to select the most suitable installation language.

As a special case, if you specify /l:0 (i.e., a langid value of zero), then the installer will use the best matching available language for the user's system. This is equivalent to specifying the Languages: Multilingual, auto package option.

langid must be the decimal or hexadecimal Windows language identifier of the desired language; hexadecimal language identifiers must start with 0x ("zero ex"). Therefore, /l:1033 and /l:0x409 are equivalent and both designate US English. See the MSDN web site for a complete list of language identifiers.

Note 1: The language selection process only has effect during installation; the uninstaller always uses the same language as was used during installation.

Note 2: If this option is specified, then the installation language is always chosen without user interaction, even if there is no exact match for the requested language.

Save the installer's log file to logpath after the installation or removal is complete.

The logpath must be a fully qualified file path that includes the final log file name, for example C:\Windows\MyLog.log. You may use symbolic variables in logpath, but you must then "quote" the option to prevent Windows from misinterpreting the < and > characters. For example, the following is a valid and properly quoted /log option: /log:"<WindowsFolder>\MyLog.log"

This option overrides the default log file handling.

Note: The new logpath must be on the same disk volume as the default log file location; in practice, this means that logpath must reside on the same volume as the installing user's %TEMP% folder.

Perform a silent (quiet, unattended) installation. During silent installations, the normal Setup wizard is suppressed and the entire installation, registration, or uninstallation process is performed without user intervention. This feature is intended for unattended installations and removals.

The second form allows you to specify a silence level n as follows:

Note - In silent installation mode you cannot specify user registration information for use on the Setup - Registration Information page. Only default user registration, if you specified any on the User interface project page, takes place in silent installation mode.

For multilingual installers running in silent mode, Setup always installs the default language version. In practice, this means that installation takes place in the locale of the installing user account, which is usually what is desired. See the Languages option in the package documentation for the details of this selection process.

The current silence level is available and may be set through the TsuQuiet variable.

Specify the path to the folder that contains the uncompressed installation source files, i.e., the files that are distributed as plain files instead of as part of the compressed installation archive. The actual files may be stored in the sourcedir folder itself or in one of its subfolders.

This option assigns a new value to the <SourceDir> variable. For new installations, this variable is set automatically to the folder that contains the original distribution package; existing installations reuse the most recently used path, unless you override it with this command line option.

Upgrade mode. Indicates that the [un]installer is running as part of an upgrade. This affects the installer operation as follows:

• In Uninstaller mode, files marked Keep during updates are not removed.
• In all modes, any in-use files that are removed, are not queued for delayed removal on the next Windows restart. This prevents problems during upgrades, when delayed file removal by Windows could accidentally remove the new version of a file.

This option sets the TsuUpgrade variable for internal and client use. /u is equivalent to /u1 and sets TsuUpgrade to 1; /un sets TsuUpgrade to n.