Linux – Extracting msi files using Linux

7-ziplinuxwindows-installerwine

To extract the contents of a MSI installer using Linux, I can either use msiexec with wine or use 7zip.

However, the latter does not preserve directories and file names only in part. Is there any way to properly extract MSI files without having to use wine?

edit: to illustrate the issue with Microsoft's Infer.NET, here is a list of files that 7zip produces and here one that msiexec produces (where the latter is what I want)

Best Answer

While it won't help you immediately, lessmsi is working on a native Linux version. It preserves directory structure like you want, so it's worth checking up on if this is going to be a long-term issue for you. Unfortunately, .msi support on Linux seems pretty sparse, so lessmsi or msiexec through wine might be your only immediate option, even if (as you said) wine is a pretty heavy dependency for extracting archives.

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Windows – Can an administration extraction of an MSI file perform registry and/or system wide changes

As with all Microsoft products, everything is possible and nothing is easy. Admin install sequences can indeed change the system, all it takes is to insert a few custom actions and you can basically do anything you like. I wouldn't worry too much though, few people bother to do anything to this sequence. Run the admin install on a virtual machine if you are really in the mood to be careful, or look through the admin sequences for any custom actions before running it.

Most of the time you don't run the administrative install with administrator rights, so the process can only update HKCU and the user profile and locations accessible for regular users.

Windows – Patch msp into msi package

The Microsoft article Deploying Product Updates from an Administrative Installation Point describes (among others) how .msp can be applied to .msi to generate updated .msi :

msiexec.exe /a "[path to .msi file]" /p "[path to .msp file]"

If an update contains multiple MSP files, you will need to run the command line separately for each MSP file that you apply to the administrative installation point - you cannot reference multiple MSP files on the same command line. The article describes in detail each command-line options.

[EDIT]

The above article may be misleading.

Before the patch step, one should first create an administrative install point from the original msi using the syntax msiexec /a original.msi.path (evoked from a different folder from where the source files are), then integrate the msp (execute this from the folder with the files in it), test the installer from the administrative share first, and afterward repackage the product.

Use the entire syntax as advised in the MS article :

msiexec /p [path\name of update MSP file] 
/a [path\name of MSI file] SHORTFILENAMES=TRUE /qb 
/L* [path\name of log file]

For a full example, see this article: MSP to MSI - Office Communicator.

Best Answer

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Windows – Can an administration extraction of an MSI file perform registry and/or system wide changes

Windows – Patch msp into msi package

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