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Full installers

A full installer carries every file of one product version. Run it on a clean machine or over any existing install: it writes the complete set.

.\target\release\installer_builder.exe pack `
    --product    "My App" `
    --product-id myapp `
    --publisher  "My Company" `
    --to-version 1.0 `
    --input      .\build\myapp-1.0 `
    --exe        myapp.exe `
    --priv-key   .\keys\priv.key `
    --pub-key    .\keys\pub.key `
    --out        .\dist\setup-myapp-1.0.exe

Required options

Supply each of these on the CLI or in a config file:

OptionDescription
--productDisplay name. Shown in the wizard, in Windows Apps, in the version-info resource, and as the default shortcut label.
--product-idRegistry-safe internal id, distinct from --product. Drives the Uninstall registry key, association ProgIDs, the uninstall data folder, and upgrade detection. Must match ^[A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9._-]{0,49}$. Keep it stable across versions.
--publisherVendor name. Sets the "Publisher" field in Windows Apps and the uninstall data folder %LOCALAPPDATA%\<publisher>\Uninstall\<product-id>. Must not be empty.
--to-versionVersion string, such as 1.0 or 1.2.3. Also parsed as a.b.c.d for the version-info resource.
--inputDirectory containing the files to install. Scanned recursively.
--priv-keyEd25519 private key that signs the payload. Or pass --priv-key-literal <hex> instead; see Signing keys.
--outOutput installer path. Parent directories are created.

--pub-key is also required, unless you pass a prebuilt stub. See Packaging without the Rust toolchain.

The main executable

--exe names your application's main executable, relative to --input, for example myapp.exe or bin\myapp.exe. It drives:

  • the "Run program now" checkbox on the wizard's final page and the --launch flag,
  • the icon inherited by the setup .exe and the uninstaller,
  • the target of file associations,
  • the %EXE% token in shortcuts and registry entries.

--exe is technically optional. Omit it only if your product has no executable at all: without it there is no launch option, no icon inheritance, and file associations and %EXE% tokens cannot resolve.

What pack does, in order

  1. Loads the signing key and validates arguments. It rejects an empty --publisher, an invalid --product-id, and case-only filename collisions that would clash on NTFS.
  2. Scans --input, hashes every file with BLAKE3, and compresses the set into the payload zip. Already-compressed media formats are stored verbatim; everything else is compressed with zstd at level 19.
  3. Builds the signed manifest and metadata, and signs the exact JSON bytes with Ed25519.
  4. Produces the installer stub and the uninstaller, either through cargo build or from a prebuilt kit, and copies the stub to --out.
  5. Embeds the signed manifest, the icon-stamped uninstaller, and a version-info resource, then appends the payload zip as a PE overlay.
  6. Self-verifies by running the produced installer's own --verify. If the stub rejects the payload, for example because a prebuilt stub's key does not match --priv-key, the build fails here instead of shipping a broken installer.
  7. Prints the signtool command for the Authenticode signing step.

The output is written to a .tmp path and renamed at the end, so a failed build never leaves a half-written setup file at --out.

Inspect the result

.\dist\setup-myapp-1.0.exe --verify

This verifies the embedded payload and prints its kind, versions, and size without installing anything.