Wishlist: install securefs on windows using an installer

[mhogomchungu]

It will be a lot easier for windows users to install securefs and for its frontends to notice if its installed and where it is located on the file system if securefs used an installer and created appropriate registry keys to inform the system where it is installed.

An installer i am familiar with is Inno Setup[1] since i am using it with SiriKali and an example of an install script is below and attached image shows how the installer looks like when it is run.

1. AppId is already unique since i just created it but you can create a new one to be certain.
2. MyEXELocation can be changed to a folder where you have securefs binary folder on your system.
3. Myarch should hold either win32 or win64 and i think you will need two scripts with each script having its own value. These values will direct the installer which binary to package
4. MyOutPutPath variable should point to where you want the installer to be created on your system.

; Script generated by the Inno Setup Script Wizard.
; SEE THE DOCUMENTATION FOR DETAILS ON CREATING INNO SETUP SCRIPT FILES!

#define MyAppName "securefs"
#define MyAppVersion "0.8.1"
#define MyAppPublisher "netheril96"
#define MyAppURL "https://github.com/netheril96/securefs"
#define MyAppExeName "securefs.exe"
#define MyEXELocation "C:\projects\securefs"
#define MyOutPutPath "C:\projects\securefs.output"
#define Myarch "win64"

[Setup]
; NOTE: The value of AppId uniquely identifies this application.
; Do not use the same AppId value in installers for other applications.
; (To generate a new GUID, click Tools | Generate GUID inside the IDE.)
AppId={{B091C801-B1EE-4D9A-9918-035C10B37964}
AppName={#MyAppName}
AppVersion={#MyAppVersion}
;AppVerName={#MyAppName} {#MyAppVersion}
AppPublisher={#MyAppPublisher}
AppPublisherURL={#MyAppURL}
AppSupportURL={#MyAppURL}
AppUpdatesURL={#MyAppURL}
DefaultDirName={pf}\{#MyAppName}

OutputDir={#MyOutPutPath}
Compression=lzma
SolidCompression=yes
DisableProgramGroupPage=yes
OutputBaseFilename=securefs-setup
      
[Files]
Source: "{#MyEXELocation}\{#Myarch}\Release\securefs.exe"; DestDir: "{app}\bin"; Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "{#MyEXELocation}\*md"; DestDir: "{app}"; Flags: ignoreversion

[Registry]
Root: HKLM; Subkey: "SOFTWARE\\WOW6432Node\\SECUREFS"; ValueType: string; ValueName: "InstallDir"; ValueData: "{app}" ;Flags: uninsdeletekey

[Languages]
Name: "english"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Default.isl"
Name: "brazilianportuguese"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\BrazilianPortuguese.isl"
Name: "catalan"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\Catalan.isl"
Name: "corsican"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\Corsican.isl"
Name: "czech"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\Czech.isl"
Name: "danish"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\Danish.isl"
Name: "dutch"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\Dutch.isl"
Name: "finnish"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\Finnish.isl"
Name: "french"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\French.isl"
Name: "german"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\German.isl"
Name: "greek"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\Greek.isl"
Name: "hebrew"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\Hebrew.isl"
Name: "hungarian"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\Hungarian.isl"
Name: "italian"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\Italian.isl"
Name: "japanese"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\Japanese.isl"
Name: "norwegian"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\Norwegian.isl"
Name: "polish"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\Polish.isl"
Name: "portuguese"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\Portuguese.isl"
Name: "russian"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\Russian.isl"
Name: "scottishgaelic"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\ScottishGaelic.isl"
Name: "serbiancyrillic"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\SerbianCyrillic.isl"
Name: "serbianlatin"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\SerbianLatin.isl"
Name: "slovenian"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\Slovenian.isl"
Name: "spanish"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\Spanish.isl"
Name: "turkish"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\Turkish.isl"
Name: "ukrainian"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Languages\Ukrainian.isl"

[1] http://www.jrsoftware.org/isdl.php

[netheril96]

It would certainly be convenient for Windows users, but I am not inclined to invest that amount of time to familarize myself with Windows installers.

SiriKali can just optionally bundle the executable files of securefs for maximum ease of use.

[mhogomchungu]

Well, all you have to do to create a windows installer with the 64 bit securefs binary is to do the following:

1. Go to here[1] and then download and install "innosetup-5.5.9-unicode.exe" executable.

2. Create a text file and name it "securefs.iss" and put in it the contents of the script i posted above.

3. Extract "securefs-win.7z" and put the contents of the archive at "C:\projects\securefs"

4. Open the script with "inno setup" and then click menu->build->compile and you will have a securefs installer with the 64 bit binary at "C:\projects\securefs.output" a few seconds later.

The whole thing should take less than 10 minutes.

I do not think its will be best for SiriKali to start bundling some of its backends because that will amount to giving preferential treatment to bundled backends.

Alternatively, i can fork the project and start distributing securefs installers the same way i did with encfs as seen here[2]

[1] http://www.jrsoftware.org/isdl.php

[2] https://github.com/mhogomchungu/encfs/releases

[netheril96]

The whole thing should take less than 10 minutes.

If we create an installer, we should do it the Windows way, namely bundling all dependencies—WinFsp and VC++ redistributable as well. That will probably take more than 10 minutes.

because that will amount to giving preferential treatment to bundled backends.

You can just bundle all backends. Or provide a button to automatically download and install each of these backends without user interaction.