Debugging InstallScript

The /d argument runs the installation program with the InstallScript debugger. For example:

Setup.exe /d

runs the installation program with the InstallScript debugger.

This is intended for setup authors to troubleshoot a setup, and not for administrators. Debugging InstallScript code requires the debug-information file Setup.dbg to be available. To debug a Standard project on a system other than the development system:

• Copy the InstallScript debugger executable ISDbg.exe (located in the System folder of the InstallShield distribution) to the test system, and register it by launching the executable with the /REGSERVER command-line argument.
• Copy Setup.dbg to the test system.
• Run Setup.exe with the command:

Setup.exe /d"<path> "

where <path> is the directory containing Setup.dbg.

For a Basic MSI project, the command:

Setup.exe /v"ISSCRIPTDEBUG=1 ISSCRIPTDEBUGPATH=\"path-to-Setup.dbg\""

runs your InstallScript custom actions in the InstallScript debugger.

Generating Debug Log File

The /debuglog parameter lets you generate a log file for Setup.exe. To generate a log named InstallShield.log in the same directory as the Setup.exe file, pass just the command-line parameter. Note that this does not work if the Setup.exe file is in a read-only location. For example:

setup.exe /debuglog

To specify the name and location of the log file, pass the path and name, as in the following example:

setup.exe /debuglog"C:\PathToLog\setupexe.log"