Re: Windows binaries and installer fixes for 30.0.93

[Francis Wright <f.j.wright@live.co.uk>]

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Hi Corwin

Thanks for the very quick update. The latest installer seems completely fine; it installs and uninstalls Emacs without any problems that I noticed. Just one final observation: most Windows apps are uninstalled via the Apps page in Settings rather than via the Start menu, but Emacs doesn't appear on the Apps page in Settings.

Best wishes,
Francis

________________________________
From: Corwin Brust <corwin@bru.st>
Sent: 21 December 2024 11:20 PM
To: Francis Wright <f.j.wright@live.co.uk>
Cc: Emacs developers <emacs-devel@gnu.org>
Subject: Re: Windows binaries and installer fixes for 30.0.93

Hi Francis,

Thanks (again) for pointing out the issue with Start Menu shortcuts.
I have a fix for this, I think.  I sent my consolidated "patches"
against the installer off to the new-bug report I created.  Meanwhile,
here is an updated installer that should fix the issue you reported
(and the other things we've been talking about/testing still, also):

https://corwin.bru.st/emacs-30/emacs-30.0.93_3-installer.exe

And, frt, here's a link to the patch (although what's on the other end
of this link could change if/as I make further changes):

https://corwin.bru.st/emacs-30/emacs.nsi.patch

That patch should generally apply against most any (pre)release
tarball or branch, AFAIK, in case anyone would like to "kibitz
expertly" by trying to reproduce my installer builds :)

In a similar spirit, I'm attaching a script (and the most recent log
from running same, related to creating the above linked installer)
which I'm using to iterate while "improving" the installer.  I find
this helpful in "quickly" testing various approaches in such a way as
to gather patches (in intent, if not always in effect so far) as a go
about this (mostly manual, mostly testing) process of trying to make
the installer behave predictably.

I much appreciate your help.  Let me know if you get a chance to try
this new version too.

On Sat, Dec 21, 2024 at 12:29 PM Francis Wright <f.j.wright@live.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Hi Corwin
>
> Thanks for working on this. The "greedy uninstaller" was a bit of a pain. I tried your installer at https://corwin.bru.st/emacs-30/emacs-30.0.93_2-installer.exe
> and the associated uninstaller seems to work correctly, i.e. it only uninstalls emacs-30.0.93, which is great. I didn't notice any of the other issues you listed.
>
> However, I did notice a couple of problems. Firstly, Windows pops up a warning from Microsoft Defender SmartScreen, which is not a new problem and is easy to work around. Secondly, the installer did not install a shortcut folder. On the Choose Start Menu Folder dialogue, Emacs-30.0.93 was pre-selected, and I ensured that Do not create shortcuts was not selected. The only button available was the Close button, which I clicked. A shortcut for Emacs itself was installed but not the shortcut to the folder containing Emacs and the uninstaller. (I can add the folder shortcut by hand.)
>
> Best wishes,
> Francis
>
> ________________________________
> From: help-emacs-windows-bounces+f.j.wright=live.co.uk@gnu.org <help-emacs-windows-bounces+f.j.wright=live.co.uk@gnu.org> on behalf of Corwin Brust <corwin@bru.st>
> Sent: 21 December 2024 5:44 PM
> To: Emacs developers <emacs-devel@gnu.org>
> Subject: Windows binaries and installer fixes for 30.0.93
>
> I have posted binaries created from the 30.0.93 (pretest #3) tarball
> to the alpha FTP site, here:
>
> https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/pretest/windows/emacs-30/?C=M;O=D
>
> Additionally, there are some "patched" versions which are only from my
> personal site so far.  The above link should be good for anyone
> wishing to try out pre-compiled binaries for Emacs 30.1 using the
> latest pretest (#3).   The rest of this email is about helping me test
> pending changes to the script that creates the executable
> self-installer for Emacs on Windows.
>
> Below are links to some additional ("patched") versions of the Windows
> installer.  Each of these was created by applying patches (or, in one
> case, replacing a BPM used only by the Windows installer) starting
> from the released sources provided in the 30.0.93 prerelease tarball
> that was published this week.
>
> The patches I've applied have been "sitting ready" for most of 2024;
> they applied cleanly and appear to work correctly from my end.  It
> would be great if others could confirm they work well; there are a
> number of long-standing bugs with the Windows executable
> self-installer it would be good to have closed.
>
> In reality only #1 below needs your testing efforts; the others are
> provided to help narrow down which patch is causing any trouble we do
> find.
>
> Here, in descending order of priority for testing, are the patched
> installers I have created along with the associated bugs reports each
> attempts to resolve:
>
> 1. resolves each item below plus set a unique name for each version's
> uninstaller (more work on 68756 in addition to #3, below).  Try this
> one first/only; work down the list if you find issues that didn't
> exist installing the released 29.4 binary installer.
>
> https://corwin.bru.st/emacs-30/emacs-30.0.93_2-installer.exe
>
> 2. fix confusing installer verbage (don't require users to "accept"
> the GPL to install Emacs)
>
> https://corwin.bru.st/emacs-30/emacs-30.0.93_bug67667-installer.exe
> https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=67667
>
> 3. fix installer splash image (badly converted, aspect ratio is incorrect)
>
> https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=70538
> (no sep build of the installer for this one but the fixed splash.bpm
> is rolled into those above)
>
> 4. do not delete all installed versions of Emacs when running
> uninstaller (this patch is incorporated into all of the above linked
> patched installer versions)
>
> https://corwin.bru.st/emacs-30/emacs-30.0.93_bug68756-installer.exe
> https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=68756#19
>
> This last item is the critical one to test; since all of the modified
> installer versions contain the patch for this issue, these testing
> instructions will work for any of 1-4, above.  To test that the
> "greedy uninstaller" issue is resolved:
>
> 1. backup your installed Emacs (if any) by making a copy of c:\program
> files\emacs
> 2. install Emacs 29.4 (or any prior GNU published version) using the
> executable self-installer
> 3. install 30.0.93 using one of my patched self-installer versions, (1-4 above)
> 4. run the 30.0.93 uninstaller created by step #3
> 5. verify the prior (e.g. 29.4) version of Emacs was not deleted (but
> 30.0.93 was)
>
> Warm regards,
> Corwin
>

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