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I've had some trouble getting WiX projects to build on build servers. One of the pain points has been that my WiX projects are referencing libraries in c:\program files... and the build process calls executables in the same path. This is a bummer because I have to install WiX toolkit in order to get my project to build.

What's the best way to eliminate this headache by having all build tools local to the project being built?

Is there a nuget package that does this? (At the time of writing it appears not, but I wanted to verify.) Package Restore capability would be nice because then I don't have to include the (many) WiX files in git.

If not, what do I need to download from WiX? What do I need to modify so that the compiler knows where to find the binaries to build WiX projects?

Community
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Josh Kodroff
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  • Did you ever get this to work? If so, how? I'm currently working on a similar project and do not want to check in binaries into source control. Now, there also seems to be a (semi-?)official [NuGet package](https://www.nuget.org/packages/WiX) of the WiX toolset. Any help is greatly appreciated. – vonludi Dec 02 '19 at 15:01

2 Answers2

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You can download just the WiX Binaries .zip from http://wixtoolset.org/releases/ then you can modify your wixproj file and update the <WixToolPath></WixToolPath> element to point to your WixBinaries

The WiX documentation has an article that explains how: Integrating Wix Projects into your Daily Builds

Binary Worrier
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Sam Plus Plus
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    Rob, first off thanks for your quick response and thanks for WiX. It really needed to be done. Do you think it would be feasible to get a nuget package for the WiX toolset that would do this in a more automated fashion? Not having to store all those binaries in revision control would be a big win. – Josh Kodroff Apr 05 '13 at 15:11
  • @JoshKodroff source control is more foolproof and deterministic. My 2c. – saschabeaumont Apr 09 '13 at 07:09
  • The CM Nazi in me is not a fan of nuget in it's current form. The deployment nut in me is disappointed that nuget doesn't express deployment logic into the final installer. – Christopher Painter Sep 23 '13 at 19:26
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    @JoshKodroff Now there's an unofficial nuget version at http://www.nuget.org/packages/WiX.Toolset/ – GreenMoose Apr 15 '14 at 09:58
  • @GreenMoose Put that as an answer and I'll be happy to mark it accepted, my man! Much better than having to install a binary. – Josh Kodroff Apr 15 '14 at 13:44
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There is an unofficial nuget package at WiX.Toolset. However, note that this seems to only be applicable to the setup project itself (i.e. it cannot be used to fetch wix binaries for e.g. a class library assembly).

GreenMoose
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