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Just want to know if InstallShield keeps a log during installation of an application.

I already checked C:\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information{GUID}, but there isn't a log file there.

The reason is that the installation of a 3rd party tool is failing with an arbitrary error such as:

"The following error occurred on file \ZZZ. File is readonly"

Options are: Ignore, Retry, Abort

I want to find out the complete path to the file as well as other information and I think this might be on the log (if there's any).

Thanks.

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4 Answers 4

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18

See Setup.exe Command-Line Parameters for the official docs on Installshield's command line parameters.

If you're running a setup.exe rather than an MSI file, and are running it silently then you can use the /f2 parameter to specify the log file location. Something like:

Setup.exe /s /f2"C:\Setup.log"
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4
  • That's what I'm looking for. Can't vote you up cause I don't have reputation, but I promise I will. Thanks.
    – Henrique Zacchi
    Sep 3, 2009 at 11:23
  • This log only shows the following information:[Application] Name=Sample App 3000 Version=1.00.0000 Company=Sample Software Corporation Lang=0409 [ResponseResult] ResultCode=0. Perhaps you want /debuglog
    – Ed Greaves
    Mar 11, 2014 at 15:23
  • Doesn't work for me. No logfile is created.
    – Florian Winter
    Aug 1, 2019 at 11:52
  • 1
    The /s switch disables the wizard UI, which may or may not be what one wants, but it has nothing to do with logging.
    – Florian Winter
    Aug 1, 2019 at 11:57
27

There are two components at play - Installshield's engine and the MSIExec/Windows Installer engine.

In later versions of Installshield's Setup.exe bootstrapper, the /debuglog flag was introduced.

To log both, try:

Setup.exe /debuglog"C:\PathToLog\setupexe.log" /V"/L*v c:\PathToLog\SetupMSI.log"

Make sure the user has write permissions to the paths specified

Installshield Setup.exe command line

2008 Command line reference

2009 Command line reference I'm not sure if this is correct as the original is no longer available.

(dead) 2010 Command line reference

(dead) 2011 Command line reference

(dead) 2012 Command line reference

Latest command line parameters

MSI command line debugging reference

Also see this http://www.installationdeveloper.com/686/using-log-files-in-installshield/

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  • 1
    This worked for me whereas GAThrawn's answer (accepted) did not. (setup.exe built by Visual Studio 2013/Installshield Limited Edition)
    – nephtes
    Mar 11, 2016 at 15:00
  • 1
    Many dead links here.
    – Agostino
    Jan 13, 2017 at 10:03
  • @Agostino three dead links - all Installshield (surprise surprise). Updated the post with the latest command line link from IS.
    – GilesDMiddleton
    Jan 13, 2017 at 14:58
  • Perhaps you can try using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to fix them?
    – Agostino
    Jan 18, 2017 at 11:39
9

Also available for installshield Setup.Exe is the /V switch.

Setup.exe /V"/LIME c:\Temp\Install.log"
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2

Well you can force it to have one:

msiexec.exe /i C:\Path\Your.msi /L*v C:\Your.log
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1
  • 2
    That's for MSI. The question is about InstallShield.
    – Mark Richman
    Jun 27, 2014 at 17:31

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