Re: [PATCH] Windows Installer Improvements (Final)

[Fyodor <fyodor () insecure org>]

On Thu, May 22, 2008 at 10:32:20AM +0100, Rob Nicholls wrote:
> I thought I'd optimise the new code a little bit and managed to save
> several duplicated lines by adding a function. I also updated the Makefile
> (although I've not tested it) to copy the three new ini files that are
> added by the patch - I don't use the "unofficial" Makefile, which is why
> I'd missed it before. This new patch is against the latest SVN version
> that I noticed now includes the excellent OpenSSL work from Kris and
> Thomas!

Thanks Rob!  This is looking great!  I have a few concerns though:

o It is very hard to debug and maintain the platform-specific
  branches.  For example, I don't even have Vista installed and so I
  can't test your patch on that platform.  And once (or if) I install
  Vista, it will be a pain to go back and test things on XP.  So it is
  good to remove these platform contingencies except when they are
  critical.  So I think we should decide on Winpcap-loading defaults
  and wording, and put them in options.ini.  Then we won't need the
  options_vista.ini.

  As for the default options, I think NPF autostart and immediate
  start are fine.  And I'm sure you can find general wording which
  works for both.

o If there are any places where vista/2008 checks are still needed, I
  think it is better to check if CurrentVersion is >= 6 rather than
  identical to "6.0".  Otherwise this may quietly break again next
  time MS makes a new OS release.  We don't know what the future
  holds, but the next version is more likely to be like Vista than
  Vista's predecessors.

o You have special code so that the new options only come up when
  Winpcap was installed.  To me, that signals that this should be in
  the pcap installer instead.  After all, these options aren't
  specific to Nmap (they can be useful for any Winpcap app) and they
  only matter if the pcap installer runs.  One of the advantages to
  having our own Pcap installer is that we can change it if we want
  to.

o I'd like to have the silent option turn on NPF autostart and
  immediately start it to (e.g. do the defaults).  I think this is
  generally desireable in those cases where you want silent install in
  the first place.

Please let me know what you think.  If you can make these changes, or
have comments about them, that would be great.  You're right that
silent installation may have been broken in the Nmap setup exe, but I
think people who use silent pcap installation may have used the Nmap
.zip file instead.

> I'm looking forward to the next stable release :D

Me too!  I hope we can get it out this week.

Cheers,
Fyodor

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