How to build a release of Apache for Windows

Paul Sutton <pcs@apache.org>

This document describes how to release Apache for Windows (95 and NT). It is an appendix to the main how to build a release of Apache document.

Overview

The steps to build an Apache for Windows release are:

Create an install directory to hold the files used when building the installer
Build Apache and install it to the install directory
Build the installer DLL and copy it to the install directory
Update the InstallShield Express 2.0 configuration file
Use InstallShield to build the files from the install directory into the single .EXE installer

Detailed Instructions

Before starting this build, make sure that you have the correct Apache file tree available. This will normally by a normal Unix release archive. Make sure that all the non-binary files have DOS style line endings. You will need a copy of the comercial product InstallShield Express 2.0. You will need that product and not InstallFromTheWeb, InstallShield 5, the ancient InstallShield 2, or any of the variants of InstallShield occasionally bundled with the Java or C development environments.

Building the Windows installer requires to temporary directories.

An install directory which contains the files that IS2 will use to build the installer. This document uses C:\Apache for the install directory.
A build directory where Apache will be built. Once built the binary files will be installed into the install directory so that IS2 can find them. This document uses C:\Build for the build directory.

Create The Install Directory
You will need to decide on a directory where you are going to place the install files. These are the files used by InstallShield to build the installer program. The examples in this document will use the directory C:\Apache which is also the default installation directory of the "nmake installr" command. If you use this directory you will not need to edit the apache.iwz InstallShield configuration file before using it.
Now create the install directory, and extract the Apache Unix release archive into it. If the distribution has Unix line endings, convert the line endings of all files apart from htdocs/*.gif and icons/*.gif and icons/small/*.gif.
The following files and directories are not used or installed on Windows systems:
- conf\*.conf-dist (but leave the *.conf-dist-win files)
- src\os\{emx,bs2000,unix,tpf}
- src\helpers
- src\test (not part of the Unix release)
- src\modules\test (not part of the Unix release)
- All CVS directories (not part of the Unix release)
- All .indent.pro files
- The files config.layout, configure, INSTALL, README.configure, src/Configuration (this last file is only in a Unix release, not in CVS)
- The files STATUS, RULES.CVS, src/INDENT (not part of the Unix release)
(Note: the InstallShield configuration file lists only the files which are to be build into the installer, so it is not necessary to remove these files and directories unless you are planning to update the IS configuration by dragging-and-dropping directories).
Rename the file README.NT in the install directory to README-NT.TXT:
```
  CD C:\Apache
  RENAME README.NT README-NT.TXT
```
Copy the MSVCRT.DLL file into the install directory. This file can be found on the MSVC++ 5.0 CD (it is a redistributable file), or in the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM (Win95) or \WINNT\SYSTEM32 (WinNT) directories.
```
  COPY \WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MSVCRT.DLL C:\Apache  (Windows 95)
  COPY \WINNT\SYSTEM32\MSVCRT.DLL C:\Apache  (Windows NT)
```
Build and Install Apache
Create the build directory by copying the src directory of the install directory to the new location. The examples in this document will use C:\Build.
Now build Apache in the normal way and install it into your install directory:
```
  cd C:\Build
  nmake /f Makefile.nt _apacher
  nmake /f Makefile.nt installr INSTDIR=C:\Apache
```
This will add the compiled APACHE.EXE, core DLL files and module DLL files into the install directory.
Building the Installer DLL
The installer DLL is called during the user install process to configure the Apache configuration files. Build it and copy it into the install directory:
```
  CD C:\Build
  nmake -f Makefile.nt installdll
  COPY os\win32\installer\installdll\Release\install.dll C:\Apache
```
Update the InstallShield Configuration File
Now the install directory contains all the files which are going to be used in the install process. The InstallShield configuration file specifies all the files to be used, and where they will be installed on the end user's machine. The configuration file is in os/win32/installer/apache.iwz.
There are two things to do to update the InstallShield configuration file. Firstly, update the configuration to reflect any new, removed or renamed files in the Apache distribution. Secondly, update the version information if necessary.
Note: Unfortunately InstallShield's configuration file format contains hard-coded absolute paths to the individual files. If your install directory (step 1) is not C:\Apache then must search and replace all instances of C:\Apache with your install directory in apache.iwz before using it. If you want to commit the changed version back to the repository, remember to search and replace from you install directory with C:\Apache before committing.
Start InstallShield Express 2, then load the os/win32/installer/apache.iwz file from the build directory (e.g. C:\Build).
- Check that all the components contain the correct list of files. This is a case of manually comparing the list of files in each component with the corresponding directory under your install directory (this is a repeatative and boring process, but InstallShield cannot handle betters ways of specific multiple files or directories to include in a single step). You will need to add or remove any files added or removed since the last time the configuration file was updated (NB: certain Unix only files may not need to be added, if they are not needed by Windows end users). One way of speeding this process is to try doing a "build": InstallShield will tell you about any missing files, but it will not tell you about new files, so to find new files, create an installer, install it, then do a recursive diff between the directory where you just installed Apache and your install directory.
- Set the Visual Design, Application Information, Version. This should contain the full version number, eg. 1.3.0 or 1.3b5.
- Set the Visual Design, Main Window, Main Title. As above.
- Ensure that the correct registry key will be used. Go to Make Registry Changes, Registry Keys. The key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Apache Group\Apache should contain a subkey containing the version number which does not change across consequetive beta releases. For example, "1.3.0" (for a full release), "1.3 beta" (on all 1.3 betas) or "1.3.4 dev" (for development versions). The name of this key must match the definition of VERSION in os/win32/registry.c of the version of Apache being packaged (which should have been updated by the Release Manager when they tagged the source tree).
- Go to Make Registry Changes, Registry Values. Make sure that the key updated in the previous step contains a REG_SZ (String) value with name "ServerRoot" and value "<INSTALLDIR>" (InstallShield will replace this with the real install directory).
After making the changes above you will have to commit the updated apache.iwz file back to the CVS tree. Do not forget to change references to your install directory back to C:\Apache if you used a different directory. Also remember to copy the updated apache.iwz file over the older version in the install directory so that the end user will have the correct version:
```
  CD C:\Build
  COPY os\win32\installer\apache.iwz C:\Apache\src\os\win32\installer
```
Build the Installer

The install directory tree and InstallShield configuration are now complete. The install directory tree will look like this:
```
  C:\Apache
  |  ABOUT_APACHE
  |  Annoucement
  |  Apache.exe
  |  ApacheCore.dll
  |  CHANGES
  |  CHANGES.APACI
  |  configure
  |  INSTALL
  |  install.dll
  |  KEYS
  |  LICENSE
  |  Makefile
  |  Makefile.tmpl
  |  MSVCRT.DLL
  |  README
  |  README.configure
  |  README-NT.TXT
  |  STATUS
  |
  |--- conf
  |      access.conf-dist-win
  |      highperformance.conf-dist
  |      httpd.conf-dist-win
  |      magic
  |      mime.types
  |      srm.conf-dist-win
  |
  |--- htdocs
  |    | index.html
  |    | apache_pb.gif
  |    |-- manual
  |        ....
  |
  |--- icons
  |      ....
  |
  |--- logs (empty)
  |
  |--- modules
  |      ApacheModuleAuthAnon.dll
  |      ...
  |
  |--- src
  |    | ...
  |    |--- ap
  |    .......
```
After it has been installed on the user's machine it will look mostly the same, except that:
- MSVCRT.DLL will be installed to their Window's system directory (but only if it is newer than any copy they have already got)
- src will not be installed in a "typical" or "compact" install
- icons and htdocs will not be installed on a "compact" install
- the *.conf-dist-win files in conf will be expanded to *.conf, with the @@ServerRoot@@ sequence replaced with the install directory path.
At the end of the installation, the user will have the option of viewing a README. This will be the README-NT.TXT file (which is the file README.NT in CVS).
So finally build the single-file installer. Run InstallShield Express 2. Load the configured apache.iwz file from your build directory.
Build the package by selecting "Disk Builder", "Start Build". Then create the single file installer by selecting "Copy to Floppy", set "Drive" to "Path for a 1 File Installation" (and enter an appropriate directory name), then select "Copy All Disk Images".
The single file installer is now built and ready to run. It will be called SETUPEX.EXE. Rename this to an appropriate name for Windows, such as APACHE_1_3_4.EXE (there must only be one period in the name).