MSI windows package

[trashcluster]

What problem are you are trying to solve?

Rclone would greatly benefit from an official .msi package on its release page.
Could be deployed on windows enterprise environment and used to create a winget manifest

How do you think rclone should be changed to solve that?

Create a MSI installer package

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[ncw]

If someone was to do this work so it worked in GitHub actions (it runs on a Windows VM) then I would certainly merge it.

I'm not going to attempt it though since I'm not very good at Windows and have made too many really bad Windows installers in the past ;-)

[hahanonym]

hey，you can use NSIS to create a windows installer (*.exe) .this is very easy
https://github.com/NSIS-Dev/github-action-examples/blob/master/.github/workflows/windows-latest.yml

mycreate.nsi file like that

[ncw]

Do you want to send a PR @hahanonym

[BraINstinct0]

Currently considering two options; Maybe will PR both if I have time (not now).

1. Self-extracting 7z EXE
2. NSIS method suggested by @hahanonym

Which seems like a better option?

[ncw]

NSIS makes a somewhat normal Windows installer, so I'd probably go for that.

[BraINstinct0]

Update: currently have little time to write/test winget-supported installer.
Anyone possible should just PR without regards to this.

Currently considering two options; Maybe will PR both if I have time (not now).

1. Self-extracting 7z EXE
2. NSIS method suggested by @hahanonym

Which seems like a better option?

[BraINstinct0]

I don't think I can PR for the whole Build process addition; It seems like too much for me now.
Would prefer someone else to be assigned to this;
as a side note,the simple .nsi idea by @hahanonym does work, but I do not know how to integrate it well into the build process.

[ncw]

If you can make a script to do the build, I can integrate it into the build process...

[BraINstinct0]

Could not get it working correctly. De-assigning.

[ivandeex]

An Example of MSI Building on CI

• https://github.com/yggdrasil-network/yggdrasil-go/blob/develop/contrib/msi/build-msi.sh (shell script based on msys2)
• https://github.com/yggdrasil-network/yggdrasil-go/blob/develop/appveyor.yml (example of calling the above)
• https://github.com/actions/virtual-environments/blob/main/images/win/Windows2019-Readme.md#shells (msys2 on girhub runners)
• https://github.com/marketplace/actions/setup-msys2 (optional action)

[hahanonym]

I don‘t try this solution in my work during use rclone。
I just use nssm build a win service ，then it can be work fine。
If some one need ui installer，maybe he can use nsis and nssm both

[thekovie]

and used to create a winget manifest

• New package: Rclone.Rclone version 1.61.1 microsoft/winget-pkgs#95142

[sitiom]

and used to create a winget manifest

• New package: Rclone.Rclone version 1.61.1 microsoft/winget-pkgs#95142

Thanks! I have created a PR to add the Winget Releaser workflow to keep it up-to-date:

• ci: add winget releaser workflow #6813

[jcasale]

@ncw I'd love to archive my repository in lieu of you incorporating my packaging at jcasale/rclone-msi.

This is a dead simple msi to produce and offers many advantages over the executable-based installers.