[wix-users] how to debug/locate LGHT0001 error?

[Ian Bell]

I am learning how to use WIX to create installation packages and have been
testing various options and configurations.   In one particular test I
created a '.WXI' file for the purpose of defining variables in one spot that
would subsequently be included in the other .WXS fragment files.    By
chance I defined a string variable and mistakenly added one to many quote
characters to the string.   Attempting to build the WIX project generated
the error, "error LGHT0001: Illegal characters in path".   No other details
were provided that identified where the error occurred.   In this particular
case I was able to quickly identify the error source because I built the
project immediately after adding one to many quote characters.    Had I not
immediately built the project but instead added additional information/data
to my WIX project files then it would not have been clear to me what caused
this particular error.  A Google search of this error message returns only a
few hits, none of which offer any practical information.   My questions are
as follow:

 

1)      Is it possible to configure the WIX build process in VS2015 to
provide more detailed debugging information such as the WXS/WXI filename and
line number where the error occurred?  If so where/how do I configure the
build settings? 



2)      If more detailed information regarding a build/link cannot be
generated then what are the recommended steps (i.e. best practices) for
debugging such an obscure error message?



3)       Are there any documents or guidelines that offer suggestions on how
to debug/test WIX projects that fail at different times in the build/install
cycle?   The reason I as is as follows.  I have been building a variety of
WIX projects for testing purposes and have encountered several problems I
was unable to resolve.   For example, in one case attempting to uninstall
the product failed to remove a few files and registry entries and I had to
manually delete them by hand.   I believe this particular problem occurred
because I had incorrectly defined/configured my WIX project files.
Unfortunately, I could not make heads or tails out of the log file and, in
the end, my workaround solution was simply to rebuild the WIX projects from
scratch and then to rebuild/test after every change I made to it.   As I
have just started learning WIX, having a set of debug/test
guidelines/suggestions would be extremely useful at this point.   



 

ThanX!

 

Ian