Inno Setup Call AfterInstall for each external File

Question

I am really struggling with this one. I have an entry in the files section of an Inno Setup (5.5.9) configuration file, that is something like the following:

[Code]
procedure showMsgBoxOfFile;
begin
  MsgBox(ExpandConstant(CurrentFilename), mbInformation, MB_OK);
end;

[Files]
Source: {src}\Some\Path\myFile*Pattern.ext; DestDir: {app}; Flags: external; \
    AfterInstall: showMsgBoxOfFile;

When I run the installer generated by running the above script, I get a single message box with the {app} directory, even though four files are copied. This seems to be in direct contradiction of the Inno Setup documentation on BeforeInstall/AfterInstall, which states:

A BeforeInstall or AfterInstall function for a [Files] section entry using a wildcard is called once per file matching the wildcard. Use CurrentFileName to check for which file the function is called.

Further, another question on Stack Overflow is from a user who wanted to do the exact opposite (get only one notification when multiple files were changed). The accepted answer to that question indicates that:

there is no way to call [AfterInstall] once after all the files are installed

I noticed that if I remove the "external" flag from my file copy, I DO get one message box per file. Is there a way to get a one notification per copied file when the "external" flag is specified? Does anyone know if there is a plan to document this difference in the Inno Setup help files?

Martin Prikryl Martin Prikryl · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-31T07:43:28

Indeed, for entries with the external flag, the BeforeInstall and AnswerInstall functions are called only once.

What you can do, is to copy the files programmatically. It would give you a full control over, what you do for each file.

See Inno Setup: copy folder, subfolders and files recursively in Code section

Inno Setup Call AfterInstall for each external File

1 Answers