[wix-users] Dark.exe doesn't error or warn for incomplete decompilation

[Anthony Fuller]

I recently noticed that Dark.exe does not throw an error or a warning when decompiling an MSI that contains components who refer to directories that do not fully resolve. We have a custom action that dynamically resolves some specific DirectoryRefs when the MSI is run. Decompiling in "dumb" mode ( -xo parameter) happily dumps the MSI as it appears on disk but the WiX syntax is lost of course. I am using WiX Toolset Decompile version 3.9.1006.0

I think this is because the generated WiX output tries to nest the components inside the Directory listing and components that do not fully resolve don't actually have a place. Either generating "place holders" much like binary files have or using DirectoryRef's could potentially solve this problem.

Tony