[wix-users] Include whole files in Pyro patch?

[Blair Murri]

The four biggest issues we (MSN/Windows Live Messenger) ran into with Windows Installer's use of "delta" was:

1) that any file "corruption" (which could include simply having more than one servicing stack, including releasing both an MSI and an MSP for the same release) would all too often render the file "unpatchable", necessitating a second MSP (identical to the first, except completely "whole-file") to successfully complete the patch.

2) The algorithm used is optimised for PE-32 files (especially when supplying the files own .PDB file to the compression code) and would create a much larger "patch" for 64-bit code, reducing the benefit by a marked amount.

3) Typically by the third base we wanted to patch, the patch had grown to be nearly the size of the whole file.

4) At least once, Windows XP shipped a service release that changed something in the algorithm, causing patches built with that release to not be able to "expand" on unpatched Windows boxes (the expansion worked just fine on updated Windows). That release included some security fix(es) that made its use mandatory within MSFT, so we simply couldn't swap the files out on our build servers. It was around that time we started to reprioritize delta-file as well.

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________________________________
From: Rob Mensching <rob at firegiant.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 9, 2019 9:14:17 AM
To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List
Cc: Blair Murri
Subject: RE: Include whole files in Pyro patch?

When Office abandoned delta patching due to too many "poor behaviors" (bugs?) in the Windows Installer, I lost a lot of interest trying to make delta patching work.

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-----Original Message-----
From: wix-users <wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org> On Behalf Of Blair Murri via wix-users
Sent: Saturday, February 9, 2019 12:26 AM
To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Cc: Blair Murri <osito at live.com>
Subject: Re: [wix-users] Include whole files in Pyro patch?

IIRC, not currently. I don't remember if we opened a feature to enable that behavior or not.

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________________________________
From: wix-users <wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org> on behalf of Reuss, Matthias via wix-users <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Sent: Friday, February 8, 2019 6:51:49 AM
To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List
Cc: Reuss, Matthias
Subject: [wix-users] Include whole files in Pyro patch?

Hi there,

(my 3rd and last posting concerning patches for today)

trying to evaluate the "Pyro way" of patching, I found that there is a pyro command-line option "-delta" to create binary delta patches, so I guess that including all the files as whole files is default behaviour.

With a PCP, it is possible to fine-tune this behaviour, i.e. to specify for each file of the "upgraded image", i.e. the newest image, whether it shall be included as a whole file or as a delta (in WiX: UpgradeFile/@WholeFile). Is this also possible with pyro?

Best regards

Matthias Reuss