New target module 'exe' (for Windows SFX installers)

[prof-milki]

Took a while, but here's a trivial Win32 packaging target.

gist :
fpm…package…exe.rb

It creates basic self-extracting zips, with an Installer-like look and feel, courtesy of FreeExtractor. Its makesfx.exe runs well under wine/Linux; and neatly maps fpm package information.

Obviously its use regularily requires crafting a windows-specific start.cmd wrapper etc., and packaging files relocatable without absolute paths (no --prefix), so they can end up in $programfiles$/appxy.

---

If there's enough interest, it's eventually even possible to cut out the middleman (wine makesfx.exe) requirement.
The final "installer" .exe is just a concatenation of:

• the SFX binary,

  MZP@C@...
  

• an INI-style description block (max 1024 byte),

  [FE]
  Name='package'
  ZipSize=20524
  Exec=
  DefaultPath=C:/App/
  Intro="...\n"
  URL=
  Author=
  

• and the plain ZIP archive appended.

  PKCDT@B@...
  

• (Not sure about the icon though.)

[prof-milki]

fpm…package…exe.rb v0.3 now bundles the SFX binary, to do away with the wine and makesfx.exe dependency.

Moreover it uses a customized INI section, which retains a few more fpm packaging parameters. Which allows the resulting installer data to be imported again (fpm -s exe -t deb) now. The field mapping still needs some fine tuning though.

[ViktorNova]

Very cool.

[vrecan]

👍