How do I combine FreeArc compression with Inno Setup? [duplicate] - compression

Question

I've been trying to make an installer by Inno Setup which only supports zip/bzip/lzma/lzma2 compression methods. I packed my archive by FreeArc (output file extension is .arc but renamed it to .bin) but Inno Setup is not able to extract it. I searched on internet how to implant arc decompression into Inno Setup but all sites refer to FreeArc official website which is dead for a while.
All I need is the code to use the necessary dll files to give Inno Setup the ability to decompress arc archives plus the list of those dll files needed to do so.
I appreciate any help.

Answer 1

This answer has been superseded by Inno Setup - How to add cancel button to decompressing page? that uses unarc.dll instead of driving the console Arc.exe.
I'm keeping this answer, as its concept can be useful for other archive types.
See the example below. It:
takes an ARC file, embeds it to the installer
during installation, the ARC file is extracted to a temporary folder
the files from the ARC file is extracted to the target folder
#define ArcArchive "test.arc"
[Files]
Source: {#ArcArchive}; DestDir: "{tmp}"; Flags: nocompression deleteafterinstall
Source: Arc.exe; Flags: dontcopy
[Code]
function BufferToAnsi(const Buffer: string): AnsiString;
var
W: Word;
I: Integer;
begin
SetLength(Result, Length(Buffer) * 2);
for I := 1 to Length(Buffer) do
begin
W := Ord(Buffer[I]);
Result[(I * 2)] := Chr(W shr 8); // high byte
Result[(I * 2) - 1] := Chr(Byte(W)); // low byte
end;
end;
function SetTimer(
Wnd: LongWord; IDEvent, Elapse: LongWord; TimerFunc: LongWord): LongWord;
external 'SetTimer#user32.dll stdcall';
function KillTimer(hWnd: LongWord; uIDEvent: LongWord): BOOL;
external 'KillTimer#user32.dll stdcall';
var
ProgressPage: TOutputProgressWizardPage;
ProgressFileName: string;
procedure UpdateProgressProc(
H: LongWord; Msg: LongWord; Event: LongWord; Time: LongWord);
var
S: AnsiString;
L: Integer;
P: Integer;
Max: Integer;
Progress: string;
Buffer: string;
Stream: TFileStream;
Percent: Integer;
Found: Boolean;
begin
Found := False;
if not FileExists(ProgressFileName) then
begin
Log(Format('Progress file %s does not exist', [ProgressFileName]));
end
else
begin
try
// Need shared read as the output file is locked for writting,
// so we cannot use LoadStringFromFile
Stream :=
TFileStream.Create(ProgressFileName, fmOpenRead or fmShareDenyNone);
try
L := Stream.Size;
Max := 100*2014;
if L > Max then
begin
Stream.Position := L - Max;
L := Max;
end;
SetLength(Buffer, (L div 2) + (L mod 2));
Stream.ReadBuffer(Buffer, L);
S := BufferToAnsi(Buffer);
finally
Stream.Free;
end;
if S = '' then
begin
Log(Format('Progress file %s is empty', [ProgressFileName]));
end;
except
Log(Format('Failed to read progress from file %s - %s', [
ProgressFileName, GetExceptionMessage]));
end;
end;
if S <> '' then
begin
P := Pos('Extracted', S);
if P > 0 then
begin
Log('Extraction done');
Percent := 100;
Found := True;
end
else
begin
P := Pos('%', S);
if P > 0 then
begin
repeat
Progress := Copy(S, 1, P - 1);
Delete(S, 1, P);
P := Pos('%', S);
until (P = 0);
P := Length(Progress);
while (P > 0) and
(((Progress[P] >= '0') and (Progress[P] <= '9')) or
(Progress[P] = '.')) do
begin
Dec(P);
end;
Progress := Copy(Progress, P + 1, Length(Progress) - P);
P := Pos('.', Progress);
if P > 0 then
begin
Progress := Copy(Progress, 1, P - 1);
end;
Percent := StrToInt(Progress);
Log(Format('Percent: %d', [Percent]));
Found := True;
end;
end;
end;
if not Found then
begin
Log('No new data found');
// no new progress data, at least pump the message queue
ProgressPage.SetProgress(ProgressPage.ProgressBar.Position, 100);
end
else
begin
ProgressPage.SetProgress(Percent, 100);
ProgressPage.SetText(Format('Extracted: %d%%', [Percent]), '');
end;
end;
procedure ExtractArc;
var
ArcExtracterPath: string;
ArcArchivePath: string;
TempPath: string;
CommandLine: string;
Timer: LongWord;
ResultCode: Integer;
S: AnsiString;
Message: string;
begin
ExtractTemporaryFile('Arc.exe');
ProgressPage :=
CreateOutputProgressPage('Decompression', 'Decompressing archive...');
ProgressPage.SetProgress(0, 100);
ProgressPage.Show;
try
Timer := SetTimer(0, 0, 250, CreateCallback(#UpdateProgressProc));
TempPath := ExpandConstant('{tmp}');
ArcExtracterPath := TempPath + '\Arc.exe';
ArcArchivePath := TempPath + '\{#ArcArchive}';
ProgressFileName := ExpandConstant('{tmp}\progress.txt');
Log(Format('Expecting progress in %s', [ProgressFileName]));
CommandLine :=
Format('"%s" x -y -o+ -dp"%s" "%s" > "%s"', [
ArcExtracterPath, ExpandConstant('{app}'), ArcArchivePath,
ProgressFileName]);
Log(Format('Executing: %s', [CommandLine]));
CommandLine := Format('/C "%s"', [CommandLine]);
if not Exec(ExpandConstant('{cmd}'), CommandLine, '', SW_HIDE,
ewWaitUntilTerminated, ResultCode) then
begin
RaiseException('Cannot start extracter');
end
else
if ResultCode <> 0 then
begin
LoadStringFromFile(ProgressFileName, S);
Message :=
Format('Arc extraction failed failed with code %d', [ResultCode]);
Log(Message);
Log('Output: ' + S);
RaiseException(Message);
end
else
begin
Log('Arc extraction done');
end;
finally
// Clean up
Log('Arc extraction cleanup');
KillTimer(0, Timer);
ProgressPage.Hide;
DeleteFile(ProgressFileName);
end;
Log('Arc extraction end');
end;
procedure CurStepChanged(CurStep: TSetupStep);
begin
if CurStep = ssPostInstall then
begin
ExtractArc;
end;
end;
The code needs arc.exe (I've taken it from PeaZip portable package).
For CreateCallback function, you need Inno Setup 6. If you are stuck with Inno Setup 5, you can use WrapCallback function from InnoTools InnoCallback library (and you need Unicode version of Inno Setup 5).
Alternatively, to avoid double extraction, you can distribute the arc file along the installer.
Just use {src} to resolve its path:
ArcArchivePath := ExpandConstant('{src}\{#ArcArchive}');
And remove the {#ArcArchive} entry from the [Files] section.
It would be more robust to implement the extraction using unarc.dll, like seen in the FreeArc+InnoSetup package ISFreeArcExtract v.4.0.rar.

Answer 2

Freearc Actually Comes with Inno Extraction Example
http://freearc2.azurewebsites.net/InnoSetup.aspx