Runs candle or light/lit from the Wix toolset - or both of them in sequence.
| Attribute | Description | Required |
| source | The single source file to process. | Either this or at least one nested <sources> set. |
| target | The expected target file. | Yes, unless you run candle without light. |
| mode | Which part of the toolset to run, one of "candle", "light" or "both". | No, default is "both". |
| vm | Same as dotnetexec's vm attribute. Specify the framework to use. | No. |
| wixHome | Installation directory of WiX. | No - Ant will assume WiX is on your PATH otherwise. |
| wixobjDestDir | Directory that shall hold the .wixobj files generated by candle. | No - Ant will candle have its way and use the current working directory if omitted. |
| useLit | Whether to use lit.exe rather than light.exe. since .NET Antlib 1.1 | No, default is "false". |
Specify source files that shall be passed on the command line. This is a fileset.
Specify source files that shall not be passed on the command line. This is a fileset.
Typically this would list include files when running candle or the files that become part of the MSI file when running light.
The files in this set are only used for timestamp comparisons. If neither these files nor the given "normal" sources are newer than the expected target, the task won't do anything.
Specifies preprocessor parameters for candle
candleParameter has two required attributes.
name and value that specify name and value of a parameter.
Specifies additional arguments for candle
candleArg is
a command
line argument.
Specifies parameters for light
lightParameter has two required attributes.
name and value that specify name and value of a parameter.
Specifies additional arguments for light
lightArg is
a command
line argument.
Create product.wixobj from product.wxs:
<wix mode="candle" source="product.wxs"/>
The same but using a nested sources element:
<wix mode="candle">
<sources dir=".">
<include name="product.wxs"/>
</sources>
</wix>
Create product.msi from product.wixobj:
<wix mode="light" source="product.wixobj" target="product.msi"/>
Combine the examples into a single step:
<wix source="product.wxs" target="product.msi"/>
Note that the task wouldn't do anything if
product.wxs was older than
product.wixobj and product.wixobj was
older than product.msi.
Compile multiple .wxs files at once:
<wix mode="candle">
<sources dir=".">
<include name="*.wxs"/>
</sources>
</wix>
Compile multiple .wxs files at once, specify some
include files in addition to that:
<wix mode="candle">
<sources dir=".">
<include name="*.wxs"/>
</sources>
<moresources dir=".">
<include name="*.wxi"/>
</moresources>
</wix>
Link multiple .wixobj files at once:
<wix mode="light" target="product.msi">
<sources dir=".">
<include name="*.wixobj"/>
</sources>
</wix>
Link multiple .wixobj files at once and specify
that the files in directory "source" will become part of
the package:
<wix mode="light" target="product.msi">
<sources dir=".">
<include name="*.wixobj"/>
</sources>
<moresources dir="source"/>
</wix>
Combine multiple .wxs files and include files
into a single package and specify that the package will contain
files from the source directory:
<wix target="product.msi">
<sources dir=".">
<include name="*.wxs"/>
</sources>
<moresources dir=".">
<include name="*.wxi"/>
</moresources>
<moresources dir="source"/>
</wix>
Again, if the intermediate .wixobj files are newer
that the corresponding .wxs files (and all include
files) the candle step will be skipped. If
product.msi is newer than all files, the task won't
do anything.
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