Possible Bug: UninstallString Does Not Contain Uninstall Command

{{Summary}}
TortoiseSVN's UninstallString does not contain the uninstall command,
rather the
package install (msiexec /I{PRODUCTCODE}) is used.

This makes it a little more difficult to automate uninstall of the product.

***THIS MAY BE BY DESIGN/UPSTREAM WIX BUG/LIMITATION***

{{Reproducible?}}
Yes

{{Steps To Reproduce}}
After installing a TortoiseSVN Package navigate to
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{PRODUCTCODE}
and look at the UninstallString entry.

The expectation is that this string contains the uninstall command:

msiexec /X{PRODUCTCODE}

As per the msiexec documentation
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759262%28v=ws.10%29.aspx#BKMK_Uninstall
and The Uninstall Registry Key documentation
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa372105%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
this is determined by the Windows Installer it appears this project uses
WiX see
below for more discussion.

{{Work Around}}
Those attempting to automate the uninstall process should parse for the
PRODUCTCODE and send the appropriate msiexec command; this can be done in
several ways:

1. (Recommended) As per the Uninstall Registry Key Documentation end users
are
   promised that, when the package is an MSI (as is the case here), the
Subkey
   is the PRODUCTCODE, it is recommended that whatever process is used to
scan
   for the package returns this key.
1a. A popular script is Get-RemoteProgram
https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Get-RemoteProgram-Get-list-de9fd2b4
    which unfortunately does not return this information. The vendor has
been
    contacted to backport a fix which allows end users of that script to
easily
    retrieve the PRODUCTCODE.
2. Parse the Existing UninstallString looking for the PRODUCTCODE
2a. This is prone to failure if the developer is not careful in their
parsing
    especially if the upstream project changes their uninstall string to
perform
    any additional actions.

{{Bug Previously Reported?}}
Several posts on the mailing list are concerned with attempting to automate
the
servicing of TortoiseSVN, one such post from 2010 is here:
http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/ds/viewMessage.do?dsForumId=4061&dsMessageId=2631063
however the requested feature is not what is desired, the correct way to do
this
is to either ask MSIExec for the installed packages, or scan the registry
for
the desired product, and then invoke the UninstallString or invoke the
msiexec /X{PRODUCTCODE}. Note that this second option will perform a
straight up
msiexec uninstall and is NOT necessarily the same as Add/Remove Programs,
especially if the UninstallString has been customized.

{{Version(s)}}
Issue appears to be present in the latest stable build of TortoiseSVN
1.9.2.26806-x64-svn-1.9.2.msi at some point there may have been a
regression as
very old versions of TortoiseSVN (1.6.19260 is the "newest" one I've seen)
have
the expected msiexec uninstall string.

I didn't see anything that stuck out as apparent in the WiX Installer
source in
Subversion that would be causing this.

{{WiX Discussion}}
Reading online it looks like there are a lot of results with regards to WiX
and this Uninstall string, it may be that by design you are unable to rely
on this as apparently this is also used to handle the Change/Modify dialog
(which is when the "regression" might have occurred when this feature was
added).

The "bug" might even ben upstream/unsupported by WiX.

I am by no means a WiX expert but would leave this:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10280952/uninstallstring-being-set-with-i-not-x-param

However none of those solutions looked appealing, worst case I'd say keep
it as
is and just make people aware of the work around (you'll have to do it
anyway
because you cannot guarantee what version you might be coming from).

{{Contact}}
Reported on the vendors mailing list. If additional information is
required, it can be provided upon request via the mailing list.

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Received on 2015-10-07 21:24:16 CEST