livingstone

LoZ, Phil, thanks a million for your time and input. I am "not quite
there yet". Maybe (most likely) because I don't fully understand /
PASSIVE option and/or difference between running MSI from the command
line vs. interactively-by double clicking the MSI. My understanding
(and I might be wrong) is that /PASSIVE literally takes all default
options to avoid having the user interact. If REPAIR is the default
option when running the MSI by double clicking it for the second time
why wouldn't the II run of the msi from the command line take supposed
default option of REPAIR and actually run custom actions as well?

Also, the second consecutive run of the MSI from the command line
msiexec /I Something.MSI /PASSIVE
msiexec /I Something.MSI /PASSIVE
will actually DO SOMETHING so to some extent I have to disagree with
LoZ that
>> "This won't just not run the CAs, it won't actually do anything. "
If any of the files installed by the first run of the MSI get deleted
(by mistake, for example), running the MSI on top of itself in
Scenario #2 will actually reinstall the missing files - isn't this a
sort of repair?


Maybe I should I ask the question like this: how can I make sure that
CAs will execute on the II consecutive run of
msiexec /I Something.MSI /PASSIVE
LoZ, I tried your suggestion to set condition on my custom actions to
REMOVE<>"ALL" and it didn't help - CAs still don't run in Scenario #2
outlined in my first post.

To answer LoZ's question - the reason I am even trying to test running
MSI on top of itself
msiexec /I Something.MSI /PASSIVE
msiexec /I Something.MSI /PASSIVE
is to have a full understanding of what it does, if anything, in case
my customer ends up doing it. My customer always runs with /PASSIVE
because they push my MSI via SMS at night and the requirement is that
no user interaction is permitted (MSI is sort of silent, userinput-
less install). I needed to know what happens, if anything, if the
customer pushes the same MSI by mistake two times in a row. Now that I
discovered what it does I am trying to make the second run of the
msiexec /I Something.MSI /PASSIVE
do the exact same thing that the first run did. Maybe I am chasing my
tail?

Thanks again folks.
Cheers,
livingstone