Re: Native compilation on Windows, was Re: Bootstrap Compilation Speed

[phillip.lord@russet.org.uk]

On 2022-01-21 12:59, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> From: "H. Dieter Wilhelm" <dieter@duenenhof-wilhelm.de>
>> Cc: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>,  corwin@bru.st,  emacs-devel@gnu.org
>> Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2022 13:51:28 +0100
>> 
>> The release number appears under the share\ folder.
>> 
>> c:\
>>   |- Program Files\
>>      |- Emacs\
>>         |- x86_64\
>>            |- share\
>>               |- emacs\
>>                  |- 27.1
>>                  |- 27.2
> 
> You should also see a versioned subdirectory under libexec.  (And with
> Emacs 28, also under lib.)
> 
> This is normal, and has nothing to do with the Windows installer.
> It's how the Emacs installation tree looks on all platforms.

Hmmm.

As you say, installing multiple versions side-by-side works fine and 
does not need to have
a version number in the install directory. ("C:\Program Files\Emacs"). 
Actually, the "x86_64" is
not needed now, but I guess I left that in for backward compatibility.

But, the uninstall section looks like this:

Section "Uninstall"

   # Always delete uninstaller first
   Delete "$INSTDIR\Uninstall.exe"

   # now delete installed directory
   RMDir /r "$INSTDIR"
   RMDir "$INSTDIR"

   !insertmacro MUI_STARTMENU_GETFOLDER Application $StartMenuFolder

   Delete "$SMPROGRAMS\$StartMenuFolder\Uninstall.lnk"
   RMDir "$SMPROGRAMS\$StartMenuFolder"
SectionEnd



So, I think there will only be a single uninstaller. Uninstalling will 
remove all versions of Emacs because it just deletes the INSTDIR. 
Likewise, there is a single start menu item which will overwrite the 
last installed Emacs.I guess this makes sense. In windows land, 
installing Emacs-28 would be expected to remove Emacs-27. If all older 
versions of Emacs get left behind, that would generally be considered a 
bug. I don't remember whether NSIS runs the previous uninstaller first, 
that might be checked.

So, side-by-side installation will work but it's not by design and while 
the installer supports it, the uninstaller will not respect it.

My feeling is, therefore, the current set up is correct. If you want to 
run multiple versions of Emacs, use the zip file.

Phil