I have a quite complicated build process involving different directories (for plugins) ; currently using NSIS on Windows and PackageMaker on OSX but have issues improving them as my install / uninstall process is getting more complex with time.
The more I look into it, the more I feel like I should code my own cross platform installer with a cross platform GUI like wxWidgets (I've used it before) and copy myself the right files in the right directories because I cannot find any good cross platform software installer OR even programmatically customizable software installers for both platforms.
Has anyone gone down that path ? Does anyone know what are the hardest things to achieve, blocking everyone to produce good softwares installers and why doesn't this exists right now ?
Thanks in advance!
Does anyone know what are the hardest things to achieve
The hard part about installers is not wizard GUI, it’s OS integration. That integration is dramatically different across OSes.
On Windows, you need to use MSI. NSIS doesn’t do particularly good job, MSI enables repair/modify functionality, by default MSI can upgrade stuff even when old version is still running (and it continues running while being replaced), some MS libraries ship as *.MSM merge modules… BTW, I usually use WIX for that.
Similarly, on Debian and Ubuntu Linux you need to create .deb packages. Even if you’re making a GUI installer. They also support repair & upgrades, versioning, dependencies, but they do it in completely different way than MSI.
I don’t have much experience with OSX but I think it has some other installer infrastructure implemented by the OS.