Different behavior of installer depending on language

[Ian.W]

Related to my efforts to have a more informative installer message when someone re-runs the same installer (see this thread), I have encountered a language-specific difference that seems fishy.

If I build two installers of the same app, one with English as the installer language and the other with Simplified Chinese as the installer language, I get a different message if I run the English installer after the Chinese one. It refuses to install, and it says: Cannot Install. <appname> Files (higher version already installed)

That is a fairly informative message - more so than the usual "no software will be installed or removed" message that arises when one re-runs the exact same installer. But it does not seem correct.

The strange thing is that nominally the packages are the same version, and the English one was built after the Chinese one, so if there were any auto-incrementing that would not explain it.  A peek at the setup.ini shows near-identical content with a different Package GUID in the [Distribution] section, a differernt [Localization} section and different GUIDs in the [Parts] section.

I'm planning to just ignore the behavior - but I'm a bit uneasy that it is a sign of potential bigger issues.

--Ian

[Mert_A. · Accepted solution]

For some reason, when the versions of the installers are the same, but the installer languages are different, you get the same message that would be displayed if the installed application's version was higher. Note that, in general, if you try to install a different build of the distribution with the same version number, it will proceed with the installation. When the installer language is different, though, it does not install. I've filed a bug report (#323423) to address this inconsistency.

Mert A.

National Instruments