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Building Setup Packages with the InstallForge CLI Builder

This guide shows how to build your InstallForge setup executables from the command line. It’s aimed at CI/CD pipelines and automated build scripts as well as local “one-shot” builds.

Prerequisites

  • You have an InstallForge project file (e.g. MyProject.ifp)
  • On CI: use a Windows runner/agent (e.g., GitHub Actions windows-latest, Azure Pipelines windows-latest, GitLab Windows runner).

Locate the CLI

The CLI builder lives in the bin folder, which located in the root installation folder of InstallForge.

REM Typical path on a 64-bit system:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\solicus\InstallForge\bin\ifbuildx86.exe"

Tip

It is advised to launch the CLI builder from the InstallForge Shell Environment, which sets up all necessary environment variables. The Shell Environment can be launched with the ifbuild.bat, which is also located in the build folder.

Quick Start

REM Typical path on a 64-bit system:
ifbuildx86.exe -i "MyProject.ifp"

On success, the CLI returns exit code 0. Otherwise, 1 is returned.

Command-Line Interface Reference

Usage:
  ifbuildx86.exe -i <input.ifp> [-o <output.exe>] [--quiet] [--version] [-h]

Options:
  -i  InstallForge project file path (*.ifp)
  -o  Overwrite setup package executable file path from project file

Global Flags:
     --no-color  Disable console ANSI colors
      --version  Print application version information
  -h, --help     Print this help

Info

The CLI builder supports ANSI colors in the console output by default. If your console does not support ANSI colors, you can disable them with the --no-color flag. Alterntively, you can also set the environment variable NO_COLOR to any value in order to disable ANSI colors.

Info

Setup package executables are automatically code-signed during the build process if code-signing is configured in the InstallForge project file.

Console Message Types

The CLI builder outputs messages to the console to inform the consumer about the current build status or any warnings/errors. Each message has a type that is indicated by a prefix:

  • [inf] Informational messages
  • [wrn] Warning messages
  • [err] Error messages

In case of any error message ([err]), the build process is aborted and the CLI returns exit code 1. In all other cases, the build process continues and ends finally with an of exit code 0.

Examples

Build using the setup package executable (output) file path the defined in the project file:

ifbuildx86.exe -i "MyProject.ifp"

Build and override the output path:

ifbuildx86.exe -i "MyProject.ifp" -o ".\dist\MyApp-Inst.exe"

Disable ANSI colors in the console output (useful when building a CD pipeline)

ifbuildx86.exe -i "MyProject.ifp" -o ".\dist\MyApp-Inst.exe" --no-color