This optional section defines any files Setup is to install on the user's system.
Here is an example of a [Files] section:
[Files]
Source: "CTL3DV2.DLL"; DestDir: "{sys}"; Flags: onlyifdoesntexist uninsneveruninstall
Source: "MYPROG.EXE"; DestDir: "{app}"
Source: "MYPROG.CHM"; DestDir: "{app}"
Source: "README.TXT"; DestDir: "{app}"; Flags: isreadme
See the Remarks section at the bottom of this topic for some important notes.
The following is a list of the supported parameters:
The name of the source file. The compiler will prepend the path of your installation's source directory if you do not specify a fully qualified pathname.
This can be a wildcard to specify a group of files in a single entry. When a wildcard is used, all files matching it use the same options.
When the flag external is specified, Source must be the full pathname of an existing file (or wildcard) on the distribution media or the user's system (e.g. "{src}\license.ini").
Constants may only be used when the external flag is specified, because the compiler does not do any constant translating itself.
Source: "MYPROG.EXE" Source: "Files\*"
The directory where the file is to be installed on the user's system. The will almost always begin with one of the directory constants. If the specified path does not already exist on the user's system, it will be created automatically, and removed automatically during uninstallation if empty.
DestDir: "{app}"
DestDir: "{app}\subdir"
This parameter specifies a new name for the file when it is installed on the user's system. By default, Setup uses the name from the Source parameter, so in most cases it's not necessary to specify this parameter.
DestName: "MYPROG2.EXE"
Specifies a list of patterns to exclude, separated by commas. This parameter cannot be combined with the external flag.
Patterns may include wildcard characters ("*" and "?"). Note that unlike the Source parameter, a simple Unix-style pattern matching routine is used for Excludes. Dots in the pattern are always significant, thus "*.*" will not exclude a file with no extension (instead, use just "*"). Also, question marks always match exactly one character, thus "?????" will not exclude files with names less than five characters long.
If a pattern starts with a backslash ("\") it is matched against the start of a path name, otherwise it is matched against the end of a path name. Thus "\foo" will only exclude a file named "foo" at the base of the tree. On the other hand, "foo" will exclude any file named "foo" anywhere in the tree.
The patterns may include backslashes. "foo\bar" will exclude both "foo\bar" and "subdir\foo\bar". "\foo\bar" will only exclude "foo\bar".
Source: "*"; Excludes: "*.~*" Source: "*"; Excludes: "*.~*,\Temp\*"; Flags: recursesubdirs
You should not use this parameter in any new scripts. This parameter was deprecated and replaced by flags in Inno Setup 3.0.5:
CopyMode: normal -> Flags: promptifolder
CopyMode: alwaysskipifsameorolder -> no flags
CopyMode: onlyifdoesntexist -> Flags: onlyifdoesntexist
CopyMode: alwaysoverwrite -> Flags: ignoreversion
CopyMode: dontcopy -> Flags: dontcopy
What was CopyMode: alwaysskipifsameorolder is now the default behavior. (The previous default was CopyMode: normal.)
Specifies additional attributes for the file. This can include one or more of the following: readonly, hidden, system. If this parameter is not specified, Setup does not assign any special attributes to the file.
Attribs: hidden system
Specifies additional permissions to grant in the file's ACL (access control list). It is not recommended that you use this parameter if you aren't familiar with ACLs or why you would need to change them, because misusing it could negatively impact system security.
For this parameter to have an effect the user must be running Windows 2000 or later (NT 4.0 is not supported due to API bugs), the file must be located on a partition that supports ACLs (such as NTFS), and the current user must be able to change the permissions on the file. In the event these conditions are not met, no error message will be displayed, and the permissions will not be set.
This parameter should only be used on files private to your application. Never change the ACLs on shared system files, otherwise you can open up security holes on your users' systems.
The specified permissions are set regardless of whether the file existed prior to installation.
This parameter can include one or more space separated values in the format:
<user or group identifier>-<access type>
The following access types are supported for the [Files] section:
Grants "Full Control" permission, which is the same as modify (see below), but additionally allows the specified user/group to take ownership of the file and change its permissions. Use sparingly; generally, modify is sufficient.
Grants "Modify" permission, which allows the specified user/group to read, execute, modify, and delete the file.
Grants "Read & Execute" permission, which allows the specified user/group to read and execute the file.
Permissions: authusers-modify
Tells Setup the file is a font that needs to be installed. The value of this parameter is the name of the font as stored in the registry or WIN.INI. This must be exactly the same name as you see when you double-click the font file in Explorer. Note that Setup will automatically append " (TrueType)" to the end of the name.
If the file is not a TrueType font, you must specify the flag fontisnttruetype in the Flags parameter.
It's recommended that you use the flags onlyifdoesntexist and uninsneveruninstall when installing fonts to the {fonts} directory.
To successfully install a font on Windows 2000/XP/2003, the user must be a member of the Power Users or Administrators groups. On Windows NT 4.0 and earlier, anyone can install a font.
For compatibility with 64-bit Windows, fonts should not be installed to the {sys} directory. Use {fonts} as the destination directory instead.
Source: "OZHANDIN.TTF"; DestDir: "{fonts}"; FontInstall: "Oz Handicraft BT"; Flags: onlyifdoesntexist uninsneveruninstall
This parameter is a set of extra options. Multiple options may be used by separating them by spaces. The following options are supported:
Causes the {sys} constant to map to the 32-bit System directory when used in the Source and DestDir parameters, the regserver and regtypelib flags to treat the file as 32-bit, and the sharedfile flag to update the 32-bit SharedDLLs registry key. This is the default behavior in a 32-bit mode install.
Causes the {sys} constant to map to the 64-bit System directory when used in the Source and DestDir parameters, the regserver and regtypelib flags to treat the file as 64-bit, and the sharedfile flag to update the 64-bit SharedDLLs registry key. This is the default behavior in a 64-bit mode install.
Disables the compiler's automatic checking for unsafe files. It is strongly recommended that you DO NOT use this flag, unless you are absolutely sure you know what you're doing.
(Not recommended; see below)
Instructs Setup to proceed to comparing time stamps if the file being installed already exists on the user's system, and at least one of the following conditions is true:
If the existing file has an older time stamp than the file being installed, the existing file will replaced. Otherwise, it will not be replaced.
Use of this flag is not recommended except as a last resort, because there is an inherent issue with it: NTFS partitions store time stamps in UTC (unlike FAT partitions), which causes local time stamps -- what Inno Setup works with by default -- to shift whenever a user changes their system's time zone or when daylight saving time goes into or out of effect. This can create a situation where files are replaced when the user doesn't expect them to be, or not replaced when the user expects them to be.
Always ask the user to confirm before replacing an existing file.
By default the compiler skips empty directories when it recurses subdirectories searching for the Source filename/wildcard. This flag causes these directories to be created at install time (just like if you created [Dirs] entries for them).
Must be combined with recursesubdirs.
Instructs Setup to install the file as usual, but then delete it once the installation is completed (or aborted). This can be useful for extracting temporary data needed by a program executed in the script's [Run] section.
This flag will not cause existing files that weren't replaced during installation to be deleted.
This flag cannot be combined with the isreadme, regserver, regtypelib, restartreplace, sharedfile, or uninsneveruninstall flags.
Don't copy the file to the user's system. This flag is useful if the file is handled by the [Code] section exclusively.
Prevents Setup from verifying the file checksum after extraction. Use this flag on files you wish to modify while already compiled into Setup.
Must be combined with nocompression.
This flag instructs Inno Setup not to statically compile the file specified by the Source parameter into the installation files, but instead copy from an existing file on the distribution media or the user's system. See the Source parameter description for more information.
Specify this flag if the entry is installing a non-TrueType font with the FontInstall parameter.
Don't compare version info at all; replace existing files regardless of their version number.
This flag should only be used on files private to your application, never on shared system files.
File is the "README" file. Only one file in an installation can have this flag. When a file has this flag, the user will asked if he/she would like to view the README file after the installation has completed. If Yes is chosen, Setup will open the file, using the default program for the file type. For this reason, the README file should always end with an extension like .txt, .wri, or .doc.
Note that if Setup has to restart the user's computer (as a result of installing a file with the flag restartreplace or if the AlwaysRestart [Setup] section directive is yes), the user will not be given an option to view the README file.
Prevents the compiler from attempting to compress the file. Use this flag on file types that you know can't benefit from compression (for example, JPEG images) to speed up the compilation process and save a few bytes in the resulting installation.
Prevents the file from being stored encrypted. Use this flag if you have enabled encryption (using the [Setup] section directive Encryption) but want to be able to extract the file using the [Code] section support function ExtractTemporaryFile before the user has entered the correct password.
When combined with either the regserver or regtypelib flags, Setup will not display any error message if the registration fails.
Only install the file if a file of the same name already exists on the user's system. This flag may be useful if your installation is a patch to an existing installation, and you don't want files to be installed that the user didn't already have.
Only install the file if it doesn't already exist on the user's system.
Always overwrite a read-only file. Without this flag, Setup will ask the user if an existing read-only file should be overwritten.
By default, when a file being installed has an older version number (or older time stamp, when the comparetimestamp flag is used) than an existing file, Setup will not replace the existing file. (See the Remarks section at the bottom of this topic for more details.) When this flag is used, Setup will ask the user whether the file should be replaced, with the default answer being to keep the existing file.
Instructs the compiler or Setup to also search for the Source filename/wildcard in subdirectories under the Source directory.
Register the OLE server (a.k.a. ActiveX control). With this flag set, Setup will locate and execute the DLL/OCX's DllRegisterServer export. The uninstaller calls DllUnregisterServer. When used in combination with sharedfile, the DLL/OCX will only be unregistered when the reference count reaches zero.
On a 64-bit mode install, the file is assumed to be a 64-bit image and will be registered inside a 64-bit process. You can override this by specifying the 32bit flag.
See the Remarks at the bottom of this topic for more information.
Register the type library (.tlb). The uninstaller will unregister the type library (unless the flag uninsneveruninstall is specified). As with the regserver flag, when used in combination with sharedfile, the file will only be unregistered by the uninstaller when the reference count reaches zero.
On a 64-bit mode install, the type library will be registered inside a 64-bit process. You can override this by specifying the 32bit flag.
See the Remarks at the bottom of this topic for more information.
When this flag is used and the file already exists on the user's system and it has the same version number as the file being installed, Setup will compare the files and replace the existing file if their contents differ.
The default behavior (i.e. when this flag isn't used) is to not replace an existing file with the same version number.
This flag is generally useful when replacing core system files. If the file existed beforehand and was found to be locked resulting in Setup being unable to replace it, Setup will register the file (either in WININIT.INI or by using MoveFileEx, for Windows and Windows NT respectively) to be replaced the next time the system is restarted. When this happens, the user will be prompted to restart the computer at the end of the installation process.
To maintain compatibility with Windows 95/98/Me, long filenames should not be used on an entry with this flag. Only "8.3" filenames are supported. (Windows NT platforms do not have this limitation.)
IMPORTANT: The restartreplace flag will only successfully replace an in-use file on Windows NT platforms if the user has administrative privileges. If the user does not have administrative privileges, this message will be displayed: "RestartReplace failed: MoveFileEx failed; code 5." Therefore, when using restartreplace it is highly recommended that you have your installation require administrative privileges by setting "PrivilegesRequired=admin" in the [Setup] section.
Uses Windows' shared file counting feature (located in the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SharedDLLs). This enables a file to be shared between applications, without worrying about it being inadvertently removed. Each time the file is installed, the reference count for the file is incremented. When an application using the file is uninstalled, the reference count is decremented. If the count reaches zero, the file is deleted (with the user's confirmation, unless the uninsnosharedfileprompt flag is also specified).
Most files installed to the Windows System directory should use this flag, including .OCX, .BPL, and .DPL files.
This flag instructs the compiler -- or Setup, if the external flag is also used -- to silently skip over the entry if the source file does not exist, instead of displaying an error message.
This flag instructs the compiler to compress the found files sorted by extension befores it sorts by path name. This potentially decreases the size of Setup if SolidCompression is also used.
This flag causes Setup to set the time/date stamp of the installed file(s) to that which is specified by the TouchDate and TouchTime [Setup] section directives.
This flag has no effect if combined with the external flag.
When uninstalling the shared file, automatically remove the file if its reference count reaches zero instead of asking the user. Must be combined with the sharedfile flag to have an effect.
When uninstalling the file, remove any read-only attribute from the file before attempting to delete it.
When this flag is used and the file is in use at uninstall time, the uninstaller will queue the file to be deleted when the system is restarted, and at the end of the uninstallation process ask the user if he/she wants to restart. This flag can be useful when uninstalling things like shell extensions which cannot be programmatically stopped. Note that administrative privileges are required on Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 for this flag to have an effect.
Never remove the file. This flag can be useful when installing very common shared files that shouldn't be deleted under any circumstances, such as MFC DLLs.
Note that if this flag is combined with the sharedfile flag, the file will never be deleted at uninstall time but the reference count will still be properly decremented.
Flags: isreadme
Components and Tasks Parameters
If a file already exists on the user's system, it by default will be replaced according to the following rules:
Certain flags such as onlyifdoesntexist, ignoreversion, and promptifolder alter the aforementioned rules.
If the restartreplace flag is not used and Setup is unable to replace an existing file because it is in use by another process, it will make up to 4 additional attempts to replace the file, delaying one second before each attempt. If all attempts fail, an error message will be displayed.
Setup registers all files with the regserver or regtypelib flags as the last step of installation. However, if the [Setup] section directive AlwaysRestart is yes, or if there are files with the restartreplace flag, all files get registered on the next reboot (by creating an entry in Windows' RunOnce registry key).
When files with a .HLP extension (Windows help files) are uninstalled, the corresponding .GID and .FTS files are automatically deleted as well. Similarly, when a .CHM (HTML Help) file is deleted, any .CHW (generated index) file is automatically deleted.