I am using InstallShield 2013 together with VS 2010. I have a new InstallShield MSI project that gives "ISDEV : error : -6109: Internal build error" immediately after Building File table (apparently successfully). There is nothing more in the log. What can I do to isolate this problem? Thanks
Hmm. That error is tied to building the ISDFLInfo table. An extreme response might be to remove all dynamic file links from your project; slightly more rational may be to remove them one by one until the error disappears (so you know which link it is). Other than that we'll probably need to isolate reproduction steps to see if we can find any bugs in the dynamic link code.
Thanks Michael. I used the Project Assistant to ‘Add Project Outputs’. I selected ‘Content Files’ and ‘Primary Output’. If I remove the ‘Content Files’ it will build without the -6109 error. Any thoughts on how to track it back from there.
Here's another clue. I can get it to build without the -6109 error by changing the VS Build Action for all files in all subfolders (css, img, js, videos, xslt) from 'Content' to 'None', 'Compile' or ‘Embedded Resource’. However, that is not a solution because then there are other errors because of files not found. If I set any one of them back to 'Content' I get the -6109 error again.
Ahh, project outputs; those do use dynamic links under the hood. I personally suspect some sort of duplicate or invalid key. Does this reproduce if you build your project using MSBuild? If so, there is a commented out line in the InstallShield.targets file (Program FIles (x86)\MSBuild\InstallShield\...) near "Verify output groups by uncommenting the Message Task"; this should generate a list of the files in question. Perhaps there is a duplicate or invalid name involved?
Well I got MSBUILD to generate the log. Haven't built with MSBUILD before. Is there a way to build a project instead of all 60 that are in the solution? Our solution contains files that don't normally get built, so there is plenty of irrelevant stuff in there. Actually upon further review, the .isproj files are not getting built when I build the solution.
You can invoke MSBuild on the .isproj file instead of on the solution that contains it. Due to how project outputs are processed, it will still have to build the referenced projects, and there's a chance that paths won't be determined identically to when building from the solution. I hope we don't get too far away from the root problem while going down this path...
Turns out there were some extra files in the VB project that did not belong there. Don't know why the VB project built but the InstallShield project would not. Took out the junk files and all is well. Thanks Michael
