[help] Problem with makecab directives

[Camarade_Tux]

Hi everybody,

I'm trying to make a slipstreamer for Vista Icon Pack and I've nearly done it.

File are found, extracted, modified but I can't compress them.

I want to do that with makecab and directive file to avoid having 60 black boxes appearing and disappearing on my screen.

This is the beginning of my directive file:

.Set Compress=ON
.Set Cabinet=OFF
.Set CompressionType=LZX
.Set CompressionMemory=21
.Set SourceDir=d:\temp\WORK
.Set DiskDirectoryTemplate=D:\VIP
accwiz.exe
ahui.exe
appwiz.cpl
...

And I get this:

D:\Scratch\Download\VIPv2_SP>makecab /F d:\temp\work\directives.ddf
Microsoft (R) Cabinet Maker - Version 5.1.2600.0
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved..

26,381,312 bytes in 58 files
  0.00% - accwiz.exe (1 of 58)
d:\temp\work\directives.ddf(10): ERROR: NOT IMPLEMENTED YET: compressing single
files: accwiz.exe
d:\temp\work\directives.ddf(10): ERROR: MakeCAB aborted.

If I change ".Set Cabinet=OFF" to ".Set Cabinet=ON", it works normally.

Does anyone know how I could get this to work ?

Thanks.

[LLXX]

Tried a different version of MakeCab?

[Camarade_Tux]

Same with makecab from cabsdk.

But I may have an idea. Otherwise, it is possible I can achieve the same thing with "free" alternatives.

[benners]

You could use a program like RunHiddenconsole here or hstart, I use the first with no probs, just place it in the system32 or windows dir.

[Camarade_Tux]

Indeed, I'll check that if I can't manage with directives.

In fact directives are much more efficient. They require less time to complete since makecab doesn't have to be run again and again.

[Delprat]

[DELETED]

In fact directives are much more efficient. They require less time to complete since makecab doesn't have to be run again and again.

Did you benchmarked that ?

I'm pretty sure that the executable remains in the disk cache between runs ?

Edited June 18, 2006 by Delprat

[GreenMachine]

Look for the simple answer ...

A directive file (or DDF, Diamond Directive FIle) is not intended to compress individual files. Your stated goal is not to see the DOS box flash. Simply direct MAKECAB output to NUL ... The following code compresses everything in DIR1 into DIR2 discretly:

FOR /F "USEBACKQ" %%I IN (`DIR /A-D /B DIR1\*.* 2^>NUL`) DO (
  MAKECAB /D CompressionMemory=21 /D CompressionType=LZX /L DIR2 DIR1\%%I > NUL
)

Or to see what is happening:

FOR /F "USEBACKQ" %%I IN (`DIR /A-D /B DIR1\*.* 2^>NUL`) DO (
  ECHO Compressing %%I
  MAKECAB /D CompressionMemory=21 /D CompressionType=LZX /L DIR2 DIR1\%%I > NUL
)

[Camarade_Tux]

Ok, I'll try that, then.

In fact, I thought this:

would also apply to multiple files.

(image from CABSDK)

Edited June 19, 2006 by Camarade_Tux

[Delprat]

I've searched in hfslip code and it uses DDFs only to create cabinets.

If you look in makecab.doc around your screenshot, you'll see example showing how to compress like you want : in each one there's at least one file not compressed :

.Set Compress=OFF
.Set Cabinet=OFF
setup.exe
setup.inf
.Set Compress=ON
.Set Cabinet=OFF
.Set CompressionType=LZX
.Set CompressionMemory=21
.Set SourceDir=d:\temp\WORK
.Set DiskDirectoryTemplate=D:\VIP
accwiz.exe
ahui.exe
appwiz.cpl
...

Also, hfslip uses DiskDirectory1 instead of DiskDirectoryTemplate, and no SourceDir but a relative path on each file.

++