.EXE
extension and will run on their own, even if WarpIN is
not installed locally.
There are three types of self-installing archives:
.EXE
file is
simply the WPI file with an executable
stub (usually the STUB.EXE
file in your WarpIN
directory). If you double-click on such an executable, the stub will only search
for whether WarpIN is already installed on the system. If so, the local WarpIN
installation is used for installing the archive. If WarpIN is not installed
locally, the installation will fail with an error message.
The advantage of using the .EXE
type over plain .WPI
files is that the download problems that many users have experienced with
WPI files are avoided. Besides, if the user doesn't know what a WPI
file is and where to get WarpIN, the executable will display a message where
to get WarpIN if it's not installed.
This method is useful if, as an archive creator, you do not want to force your users to install WarpIN separately before they can install your archive. However, to be able to properly deinstall your archive, your users must still have a full WarpIN installed.
An example of this type is the WarpIN distribution itself. Starting with V0.9.14,
WarpIN itself is distributed as an .EXE
file -- this is how the
WarpIN installation works now.
STUB.EXE
)
supports all these three methods.
To support installing itself, the package indices 30000 and above have
been reserved for WarpIN itself. See
"WIC -- Add mode" for details.