[deprecated] Windows Auto installer Development Notes

Transferred from Issue #427

Theoretically changing the version number in \install\windows\config.ps1 will work.

If it does not, here is how the scripts work.

###cmd's

All the cmd scripts are helper scripts that actually calls powershell scripts (ps1).

• install.cmd goes to the temp dir of the user(~\AppData\Local\temp) and then downloads the install.ps1 and then triggers install.ps1.
• run.cmd: This is created by install.ps1 to run Lexos. That calls the local script: run.ps1, which should be located at $lexosExecutableLocation = "$lexosLocation\install\windows\". See config.ps1 L5 for more detail.
• update.cmd: This directly downloads the string of update.cmd and then eval (or invoke-expression in powershell) the string.

Therefore the local version of install.cmd, update.ps1, install.ps1 actually never runs.

ps1's

This is the tricky part, but because of the awesomeness of powershell, it is actually very easy to read.

install.ps1

This file first goes to https://repo.continuum.io/archive/, and then goes through the table to find the latest version of Anaconda, checks the hash, and then installs it.

Note: Because the security issue of MD5, Continuum recently changed all their verification methods from MD5 to SHA256. This archive page still uses the outdated MD5. When they change it, we will need to change our script as well.

This script then goes to the Lexos release page and downloads the release with the version number you specified.

It then creates the shortcut, installs modules, and other stuff.

run.ps1

This script opens a cmd running python (but does not display the output, the output is redirected to null). It then continuously tries to connect to http://localhost:5000. When it succeeds, the default browser opens.

update.ps1

This script will first check whether the version you specify in config.ps1 is already installed. If not, it removes all the other versions of Lexos (basically C:\Lexos-*) and then installs the new version of Lexos.

other cool stuff.

The lexos_installer.exe is made with http://bat2exe.net/ and install.cmd. The lexos_installer.exe (also install.cmd and install.ps1) accepts two switches: -noAnaconda and -noConfirm(alias: -y).

-noAnaconda will turn off Anaconda installation and download for testing.

-y will disable all the confirmations and prompts.

If you want to sign the exe or ps1 file (you should, if you create a new exe or ps1) use the method here: https://github.com/GeeLaw/psguy.me/tree/master/profile#sign-scripts and the code can be found here: https://github.com/GeeLaw/psguy.me/blob/master/profile/profile.ps1#L32.