FAQ: How can I view the debugging output of MIPAV?
NOTE: The below text is taken from the InstallAnywhere 2009 user manual. It applies to both the debugging the MIPAV installers and debugging an installed MIPAV instance (i.e., C:\Program Files\mipav\mipav.exe). [1]
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Debugging a Win32 installer
To view or capture the debug output from a Win32 installer, hold down the <CTRL> key immediately after launching the installer and until a console window appears. Before exiting the installer, copy the console output to a text file for later review.
On some Windows NT systems, run the installer once with the <CTRL> key down, resetting the scroll
back buffer for the console window, then quit and run the installation again.
If there are problems capturing the console output, try a slightly more convoluted method (this will often
be the case on Win9x because of the limited ability of the console to capture output). First launch the
installer and allow it to extract the necessary files. Once it reaches the Preparing to Install window,
when given the opportunity to choose a language or to go to the Windows temp directory, look for a temp
folder which starts with an I followed by many numeric digits (for example: I1063988642). Be sure it is
the most recent directory by sorting the directories by their modified date. Open the directory, there
should be a file called sea_loc. Delete this file. Now return to the installer, click OK, and at the first
opportunity, cancel the installation.
Now go back to the directory inside the temp directory, where the file sea_loc was deleted. There should
be another directory called Windows; open it. There should be an .exe file (most likely install.exe). There
should also be another file with the same name except it will have a .lax extension. Open it with a text
editor and set the lax.stderr.redirect and lax.stdout.redirect properties:
lax.stderr.redirect=output.txt lax.stdout.redirect=output.txt
After these changes have been made, save the file and launch the .exe. When the installation is complete there should be an output.txt file in the same directory as the .lax file. The output.txt file contains the same information as that sent to the console.
Debugging a Unix/Linux or Pure Java Installer
To debug Unix/Linux installers and Pure Java installers without access to the InstallAnywhere Advanced Designer, set LAX_DEBUG to True.
To capture the debug output from the Unix command line
1. Enter one of the following (based on which shell) at the command line:
export LAX_DEBUG=true setenv LAX_DEBUG true LAX_DEBUG=true set LAX_DEBUG
Note: Use whatever syntax is appropriate for the Unix shell being used.
2. Run the installer. The output that is produced is sent to the console.
To capture debug output from a Pure Java installer
At the command line, start the Pure Java installer and pass the -DLAX_DEBUG=true option to the JVM. For example:
java -DLAX_DEBUG=true -jar install.jar
Like setting a LAX_DEBUG environment variable for Unix/Linux installers, passing the LAX_DEBUG Java property to a Pure Java installer sends debug output to the console.
Debugging a Mac OS X Installer
InstallAnywhere utilizes the standard output layers in Mac OS X to display output. To gather debugging output from an OS X installer, launch Console.app (found in /Applications/Utilities). To retain this information, cut and paste information from the console window to a file.
If you do not see debug output from an installer, check the Info.plist file inside the installer. To do this,
Control-click (or right-click) on the installer and select Show Package Contents. Inside the Contents
folder you will see an XML file named Info.plist. You’ll need to change:
<key>lax.stderr.redirect</key> <string></string> <key>lax.stdout.redirect</key> <string></string>
to
<key>lax.stderr.redirect</key> <string>console</string> <key>lax.stdout.redirect</key> <string>console</string>
When you relaunch the installer, the installer output should be now listed in Console.app.
See also:
Next: FAQ: Customizing MIPAV
