Command Line

This is all implemented and working as of the v2.1.0 release (July 2024).

Use Cases

• open file in GUI via command line
• specify path to extract all files
• Specify file(s) to extract (issue 23)
• output msi version
• output msi table to csv (patch in issue 26)

Syntax

lessmsi <command> [switches] <msi_name> [<path_to_extract\>] [file_names]

Note: If no command is specified the GUI opens.

Commands

Command o: - Open in GUI

Opens the specified msi_name in the GUI.

• switches: Not supported.
• msi_name: The name of the msi to open in the GUI
• path_to_extract: Not supported.
• file_names: Not supported.

Examples

lessmsi o theinstall.msi

Command x: - Extract

Extracts from the specified archive.

• switches: Not supported.
• msi_name: (required) specifies the msi to extract files from
• path_to_extract: (optional) The path to extract the files to. MUST have trailing backslash or it will be treated as one of the file_names.
• file_names: (optional) Names of files that you want to extract from the msi. All files are extracted if not specified.

Note: There is a known bug err "limitation" that you can only specify the name of the file (not the path). Therefore if there are multiple instances of the file inside the msi with the same name and you want to extract that file there is no way to specify which file to extract. If this is a problem for you, add your comment on issue #130 and if I know it is important to someone I'll take the time to make that work.

Note: /x will work as the "command" for backward compatibility. The /x command is obsolete. It may be removed in the future!

Examples

Extracts all files from theinstall.msi into the current directory:

lessmsi x theinstall.msi

Extracts a.txt and b.txt from c:\theinstall.msi into the directory c:\theinstallextracted.

lessmsi x c:\theinstall.msi c:\theinstallextracted\ a.txt b.txt

Command xfo: - Flat extraction with identical file overwriting

Extracts from the specified archive.

• switches: Not supported.
• msi_name: (required) specifies the msi to extract files from
• path_to_extract: (optional) The path to extract the files to. MUST have trailing backslash or it will be treated as one of the file_names.
• file_names: (optional) Names of files that you want to extract from the msi. All files are extracted if not specified.

This command performs a file extraction from a given MSI file, similar to a regular extract command (x). The key difference is that this command does not preserve the folder structure present in the MSI file. Instead, it saves all extracted files in the same location. To handle any files with identical names, this command overwrites them, ensuring that only one file remains.

Examples

Extracts all files from theinstall.msi into the current directory:

lessmsi xfo theinstall.msi

Extracts a.txt and b.txt from c:\theinstall.msi into the directory c:\theinstallextracted.

lessmsi xfo c:\theinstall.msi c:\theinstallextracted\ a.txt b.txt

Command xfr: - Flat extraction with identical file renaming

Extracts from the specified archive.

• switches: Not supported.
• msi_name: (required) specifies the msi to extract files from
• path_to_extract: (optional) The path to extract the files to. MUST have trailing backslash or it will be treated as one of the file_names.
• file_names: (optional) Names of files that you want to extract from the msi. All files are extracted if not specified.

This command performs a file extraction from a given MSI file, similar to a regular extract command (x). The key difference is that this command does not preserve the folder structure present in the MSI file. Instead, it saves all extracted files in the same location. To handle files with identical names, this command renames each file by adding a numerical suffix indicating the order of occurrence.

Examples

Extracts all files from theinstall.msi into the current directory:

lessmsi xfr theinstall.msi

Extracts a.txt and b.txt from c:\theinstall.msi into the directory c:\theinstallextracted.

lessmsi xfr c:\theinstall.msi c:\theinstallextracted\ a.txt b.txt

Command l: List

Lists the specified file table as a csv.

• switches:
• -t (required): Switch to specify which MSI table to extract.
• msi_name: (required) The name of the msi to open extract the table from.
• path_to_extract: Not supported.
• file_names: Not supported.

Examples

lessmsi l -t Component c:\theinstall.msi

Command v: Version

Prints out the msi version.

• switches: Not supported.
• msi_name: (required) The name of the msi to display the version from.
• path_to_extract: Not supported.
• file_names: Not supported.

Examples

lessmsi v c:\theinstall.msi