Build-time variables

In general, you can use symbolic variables as part of your build actions. Symbolic variables are expanded immediately prior to the build action in which they are used. See Alphabetical reference for a full description of the available symbolic variables.

General variables

Most symbolic variables can be used normally in build actions, because they do not depend on the system configuration and are not sensitive to timing issues (unless you redefined them in a way that does refer to runtime or build time information).

However, be aware that some variables refer to runtime information that depend on the target system (for example, physical memory size or the full path to the Windows folder). If you use these variables in build actions, they may be undefined or refer to your development system instead of the customer's system, which may or may not be what you intended.

Build time variables

The following variables are set by InstallMate each time you build a project and are considered build time variables:

Validity of build variables

During the build actions, the values of build time variables are available for use in the actions. However, their values may change during the build process as different configurations or targets are processed. Use the table below to determine which variables can be safely used during each custom build action.

n/a - indicates that the variable's value is either not available or cannot be relied upon.