Operations

The operations are prepared by component and controller scripts or component.xml and performed by the installer.

Note: Operations are performed threaded.

Internally, each operation has a DO step that contains instructions for the installer and an UNDO step that contains instructions for the uninstaller.

Some operations especially in Windows might need native separators. Use installer.toNativeSeparators() to convert separators to ones that are appropriate for the underlying operating system.

Summary of Operations

The following table summarizes the available operations and their syntax in component and controller scripts. Syntax for operations in component.xml is:

<Operations>
  <Operation name="operation">
    <Argument>argument1</Argument>
    <Argument>argument2</Argument>
  </Operation>
</Operations>

Note: The argument order in component.xml is the same as in scripting, except for Extract operation where the argument archive is optional, and must be defined as the last argument.

OperationSyntaxUse
Copy"Copy" source targetCopies a file from source to target.
Move"Move" source targetMoves a file from source to target.
SimpleMoveFile"SimpleMoveFile" source targetMoves a file from source to target.

Note: Files will be moved from target to source during uninstallation. If you want to move the files persistently, you can overwrite the UNDO by passing UNDOOPERATION and "", to the end of the argument list.

Delete"Delete" filenameDeletes the file specified by filename.
Mkdir"Mkdir" pathCreates the directory path path.
Rmdir"Rmdir" pathRemoves the directory path path.
CopyDirectory"CopyDirectory" sourcePath targetPathCopies a directory from sourcePath to targetPath.

Note: Directories will be reset during uninstallation. If you want to copy the directory persistently, you can overwrite the UNDO by passing UNDOOPERATION and "", to the end of the argument list.

AppendFile"AppendFile" filename textAppends text to the file specified by filename. text is treated as ASCII text.
PrependFile"PrependFile" filename textPrepends text to the file specified by filename. text is treated as ASCII text.
Replace"Replace" file search replace modeOpens file to find search string and replaces that with the replace string, using mode that can be either string or regex. For regular expressions containing capturing groups, occurrences of \1, \2, ..., in replace are replaced with the string captured by the corresponding capturing group.

Note that testing the operation using devtool does not support commas inside the search pattern as they are used as argument separators. When using regex mode you should also ensure the search pattern adheres to QRegularExpression class documentation, particularly to the escaping rules for characters.

LineReplace"LineReplace" file search replaceOpens file to find lines that start with search string and replaces that with the replace string. Lines are trimmed before the search.
Execute"Execute" [{exitcodes}] command [parameter1 [parameter... [parameter10]]]Executes the command specified by command. Up to 10 parameters can be passed. If that is not enough, you can use a JavaScript string array.

Optionally, you can pass a comma-separated list of exit codes within curly brackets ({}) as the first argument to specify the exit codes for successful execution. This defaults to "{0}".

Other optional named arguments are: "workingdirectory=<your_working_dir>"; "errormessage=<your_custom_errormessage>"

In addition, a special argument, UNDOEXECUTE, separates the DO step of the operation from the UNDO step.

Example: component.addOperation("Execute", "touch", "test.txt", "UNDOEXECUTE", "rm", "test.txt")

CreateShortcut"CreateShortcut" filename linkname [arguments]Creates a shortcut from the file specified by filename to linkname. On Windows, this creates a .lnk file which can have arguments. Furthermore, filename can be an HTTP, HTTPS or FTP URL in which case a URL shortcut is created.

Note: If the @AllUsersStartMenuProgramsPath@ is used for placing the shortcut, then due to a problem on Windows, it will drop any arguments to the target and any description set. In this case, you should place the shortcut elsewhere and copy it to the location desired.

Note: Creating a shortcut to a network share is not supported. The operation is currently not implemented on other platforms.

CreateDesktopEntry"CreateDesktopEntry" filename "key=value[ key2=value2[ key3=value3]]]"Creates a .desktop initialization file, as specified by freedesktop.org. This operation is useful only on X11 or Wayland based Linux distributions.

If filename is absolute, the desktop entry is stored there. Otherwise, it is stored in the location specified in $XDG_DATA_HOME/applications, including the default path, as defined by freedesktop.org. For system-wide installations, it is stored in /usr/local/share/applications instead.

The key-value pairs are written to the file.

The file is set to use UTF-8 encoding.

InstallIcons"InstallIcons" directory [Vendorprefix]Installs the contents of directory into a location, as specified by freedesktop.org. That is, into $XDG_DATA_HOME/icons, $HOME/.local/share/icons or /usr/local/share/icons. The files are removed from their initial location. Make sure to add this operation after the operation that extracts the files from the archive. If you provide a Vendorprefix it replaces all characters up to the first dash (-) in the filename of the icon with this prefix.
Extract"Extract" archive targetdirectoryExtracts archive to targetdirectory. Extract operations are called before other operations. Note that in component.xml argument archive is optional and thus must be defined as the last parameter.
GlobalConfig"GlobalConfig" company application key value

or

"GlobalConfig" scope company application key value

or

"GlobalConfig" filename key value

Stores value for key in a configuration file. The configuration file is specified either by filename (using QSettings::NativeFormat, which might be the Windows registry) or by application and company name. Set scope to "SystemScope" to create an entry in the system scope.

Note: GlobalConfig will be reset during uninstallation. If you want to make the config persistent, you can overwrite the UNDO by passing UNDOOPERATION and "", to the end of the argument list.

Note: The operation is using QSettings to store the key value pair. QSettings always treats backslash as a special character and provides no API for reading or writing such entries. Do not use slashes ('/' and '\') in section or key names; the backslash character is used to separate sub keys. On windows, '\' are converted by QSettings to '/', which makes them identical. Because the backslash character is used by QSettings to separate sub keys, you cannot read or write windows registry entries that contain slashes or backslashes. You should use a native windows API if you need to do so.

EnvironmentVariable"EnvironmentVariable" key value [persistent [system]]Sets the environment variable key to value. If persistent is set to true, the variable is set persistently. This is currently only supported on Windows. If system is set to true, the persistent variable is set system-wide, not only for the current user. Note, if you set path to environment variable, use '\' as separator, for example: @Targetdir@\lib\system.
RegisterFileType"RegisterFileType" extension command [description [contentType [icon]]].Registers the file type with extension to be opened via command. Optionally, you can specify description, contentType, and icon. This is currently only supported on Windows.

Note: File type will be unregistered during uninstallation. If you want keep the type registered, you can overwrite the UNDO by passing UNDOOPERATION and "", to the end of the argument list.

ConsumeOutput"ConsumeOutput" installerKeyName executablePath processArgumentsSaves the output from running the executable located at executablePath with the arguments processArguments to the installer key specified by installerKeyName. Additional arguments can be passed.
CreateLink"CreateLink" linkPath targetPathCreates a link in the location specified by linkPath that points to the location specified by targetPath.
CreateLocalRepository"CreateLocalRepository" binaryPath repoPathCreates a local repository in the directory specified by repoPath. For offline installers, stores binary data in the directory specified by binaryPath.

Note: The repository will be deleted during uninstallation. If you want keep the repository, you can overwrite the UNDO by passing UNDOOPERATION and "", to the end of the argument list.

FakeStopProcessForUpdate"FakeStopProcessForUpdate" processlistMatches running processes against the comma-separated entries in processlist during uninstallation. If matches are found, shows a messagebox asking the user to stop those processes before continuing.
License"License" licensesCopies the license files specified by licenses to a subfolder called Licenses in the target directory. This operation is automatically added for packages declaring <Licenses> in their package description file.
MinimumProgress"MinimumProgress"Increases the progress value by one.
SelfRestart"SelfRestart" coreRestarts the updater or package manager specified by core.
Settings"Settings" path method key valueSets or removes the value of key in the settings file located at path, depending on the value of method: set, remove, add_array_value, and remove_array_value. Example: component.addOperation("Settings", "path=settings.ini", "method=add", "key=myKey", "value=myValue")

The Extract, License, and MinimumProgress operations are automatically added for matching components that do not overwrite the component::createOperations() method. See also component::autoCreateOperations.

If errors occur, you can test operations manually using the devtool. However, variables are not resolved, so you need to use absolute values.

For example, to test copying a file:

devtool operation <binary> DO,Copy,<source>,<target>

Execution Groups

The operations owned by a component belong to either of two groups: Unpack or Install. The Extract operations are performed as part of the Unpack group before all other operations and executed concurrently between all components that are going to be installed. The rest of the operations are performed in the Install group and executed sequentially for each component at a time.

Custom operations can define their execution group by calling the setGroup() method in their constructor. For more information about custom operations, see Registering Custom Operations.

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