Build - Advanced

The Build - Advanced dialog box is one of the pages that appears when you click Advanced... on the Build Configuration attributes pane. It allows you to specify advanced build configuration options.

Dialog fields and options

The dialog page contains the following fields.

Attribute Description
Generate ZAP file

Check this box to generate a ZAP file for each distribution package. A ZAP (Zero Administration Package) file is a text file containing rudimentary information about the accompanying Setup package. It is intended for Setup packages that do not use Windows Installer, and gives system administrators an opportunity to manage the Setup package in an automated fashion.

The ZAP file will be created as <ProjectFolder>\Config name\Installer name.zap, where .zap replaces the extension of the installer itself.

Generate TWU update file

Check this box to generate a TWU (Tarma WebUpdate) update file for each distribution package. A TWU update file is a text file containing automatic update information for the current installer package. It is intended to be used in conjunction with Tarma WebUpdate.

The TWU update file will be created as <ProjectFolder>\Config name\Installer name.txt, where .txt replaces the extension of the installer itself.

Keep intermediate files

Check this box to keep any intermediate files created during the build process; clear it to have them cleaned up. The intermediate files should not be distributed, but are useful for diagnostic purposes and testing.

The following table lists the intermediate files created during the build process (for a complete overview of all output files, see Build configuration):

File Description
Name.dat Installer database, containing the installation objects and actions. Name is the installer's name as entered in the Installer name field of the Build configuration attributes pane .
Name32.dll
NameX64.dll
Installer resources DLLs, containing all required resources for all languages included in the build. Name is the installer's name as entered in the Installer name field of the Build configuration attributes pane. The 32 version is for use with 32-bit Setup stubs; the X64 one for 64-bit Setup stubs.
Stub set Select the desired Setup stub set from the drop-down list. Stub sets represents different versions of the Setup stubs (see Setup stubs). The Standard stub set is always present; other stub sets may be available for customized versions of Tarma Installer.
Compressor

Select the desired compressor from the drop-down list. The following choices are available:

Compressor Description
Default Use the default algorithm. Currently, this is LZMA.
Deflate Use ZLib's Deflate algorithm. This is the same algorithm that is used for Zip archives. The compressor is fast, but does not achieve the best possible compression rates.
LZMA Use Igor Pavlov's LZMA algorithm. This algoritm achives very high compression on most files, but compression can be slow. (Decompression will be fast, though.)
Disk spanning

Select the desired disk spanning option from the drop-down list. Disk spanning is the process of breaking up the compressed installation archive into smaller parts of a specified maximum size each, for example to fit them on disks of that size. This option only has effect for the Loader + Archive some Packaging option in the current build configuration; see Installer packaging for more information.

If disk spanning is used, then the parts of the installation archive are called Disk0001.tiz, Disk0002.tiz, etc. to indicate on which disk they should be distributed. (The Disk0001.tiz span should be included on the first disk, which is the same that contains the installer proper.)

Note that if you choose a very small span size (less than approximately 150 KB), then the total size of the first disk may be larger than the requested size, because it contains the Setup loader and stubs as well. However, for most realistic span sizes this is not an issue. The final archive part may be less than the maximum allowed span size, because it will only contain whatever remains at the end of the archive.

The following disk spanning choices are available:

Disk spanning Description
None Do not use disk spanning. The installation archive is created as a single monolithic compressed .tiz archive, regardless of its ultimate size.
Custom size Use disk spanning and restrict each span to the size specified in the Span size field (below). This option allows you to choose a specific size if none of the predefined sizes is applicable.
3.5" Floppy Use disk spanning and restrict each span to the size of a 3.5" diskette, 1440 KB.
Mini CD-ROM Use disk spanning and restrict each span to the size of a mini CD-ROM (business card sized), approximately 202 MB.
CD-ROM 74 min Use disk spanning and restrict each span to the size of a CD-ROM with 74 minute capacity, approximately 650 MB.
CD-ROM 80 min Use disk spanning and restrict each span to the size of a CD-ROM with 80 minute capacity, approximately 700 MB.
DVD 4.7 GB Use disk spanning and restrict each span to the size of a single-sided DVD, approximately 4.7 GB.
Span size Enter the desired custom span size in KB (1 KB = 1024 bytes). This option is only available if you chose Custom size for the Disk spanning field. The minimum allowed span size is 64 KB.
First span reserve

Enter the amount of disk space to reserve on the first disk, in KB (1 KB = 1024 bytes). When building the installer, Tarma Installer will subtract this amount from the span size of the first span (only) and produce a correspondingly smaller first span. The second and subsequent spans will use the maximum allowed span size.

This option is intended to reserve space on the first disk if you want to include additional files over and beyond the installer, for example an Autorun program or a licensing file.

Tip: You do not have to allow for the room taken up by any files distributed in the plain file tree; the size of these files is taken into account automatically by Tarma Installer when it builds the installer. (For the purpose of this calculation, each plain file's size is rounded up to the next multiple of 4 KB to take the effects of the estimated disk block size into account, and another 4 KB is set aside for each folder in the plain file tree. Depending on the actual block size of the distribution media this calculation might be somewhat off, but is typically very close to the real disk space occupied by the plain file tree.)

Related topics

Build configuration, Installer packaging