A curious, intermittent problem with aut2exe\aut2exe_x64

[Mbee]

I'm experiencing a very strange but intermittent problem when I try to build my x64 code.  Most of the time everything works fine, but randomly and fairly frequently I'll get the following error messages:  First, a popup error box: "Error: Unable to add resources."  Then the following at the bottom of SciTE:

Aut2exe.exe ended with errors because the target exe wasn't created, abandon build. (C:\Users\mjb\AppData\Local\AutoIt v3\Aut2exe\~AUAE9.tmp.exe)rc:2

(it actually ran aut2exe_x64.exe).  What makes this so strange is that, every time this happens, if I change nothing at all and simply perform the build again, it almost always works fine again (though sometimes I have to try more than once).  Now, I'm aware that anti-virus and other protection tools can cause this kind of error, but not only have I turned all of them off but the fact that it'll work fine again next time pretty much proves that kind of thing isn't at fault this time.

This isn't catastrophic, obviously, just puzzling and mildly annoying.

Edited May 10, 2018 by Mbee

[BrewManNH]

Anti-virus or shared folder issue.

[Jos]

Did you exclude the temp directory "C:\Users\mjb\AppData\Local\AutoIt v3\Aut2exe\"  from your Anti Virus software?

Jos

[Mbee]

Not only that, but I completely disabled it and my firewall (which also watches for various violations).  And again, if it were related to either of these, why does it work perfectly when I simply build again?

[BrewManNH]

Are you using a OneDrive or similar type folder?

[Mbee]

Just now, BrewManNH said:

Are you using a OneDrive or similar type folder?

No, just an ordinary local folder on a hard drive that is not shared.

[Jos]

There has to be a process on the computer that locks the file at the time AUT2EXE creates the temp binary and tries to update the PE Header's resource info.

Jos 

[Mbee]

12 minutes ago, Jos said:

There has to be a process on the computer that locks the file at the time AUT2EXE creates the temp binary and tries to update the PE Header's resource info.

Jos 

I see, whatever it is, that other process can be active intermittently which explains why it sometimes works correctly.  I'll look for such.

Thanks!

[jpm]

I face he same problem when compiling, so I need to disable Windows Denfender Antivirus an reenable it after it the produce .exe is ok for the antivirus !!!

Edited May 13, 2018 by jpm

[tremolux66]

I just ran into this issue: from zero to frequent (approaching constant) compilation failures in just a few days. All my individual programs compile fine, but when I try to build the installer, Aut2Exe gets blocked and bails out. That's probably b/c the installer-generator takes a script template, a zip archive, and a checksum file and compiles it all into an executable with the 2 files embedded in it. The AV software produces a false positive after concluding the compiler is generating malware. So now our project is dead in the water w.r.t to building and testing our software until we get a solution. (And this is after I had to find a workaround for Windows thinking the installer was malware when it executed; cranking up the compression on Aut2Exe did the trick - for now.)

Unfortunately, in a corporate environment it's not always easy to disable AV software, add exceptions, etc., and the IT folks may not be able to do a lot about it; depends on how rigid the security software configuration is and how rigid the company policies turn out to be. (The new network security software blocked access to the second network on my computer, which I need for testing. Etc.) Security is very important, but we also need to be able to do our jobs and the customers happy.

[jpm]

another way is to use .a3x compilation instead of .exe in corporate environment

[tremolux66]

@jpm Thanks for the suggestion; will try it out.

It looks preferable to removing the FileInstall() calls and shipping the currently-embedded files as external files.

(We don't currently ship the AutoIt interpreter, but if that will dig us out of this hole, it would be a reasonable approach.)

[jpm]

If you Don't like to execute .au3 you can even restrict to use only .a3x with some registry modification

[tremolux66]

@jpm

I'm not sure I understand your suggestion. Currently, we avoid touching the Registry, although some installers for 3rd-party software might modify it.

We also have another problem: if we want to change the installation disc contents to have a different number of files with different names, we have to put a new installer-launcher program on the system before we can use the new-style disc. The current launcher expects an exact number of files with certain names, otherwise it won't run the installer.

So, I would prefer to continue using our current method, where we embed the product software files into the installer.exe program file using FileInstall(). But first we have to be able to compile the installer.

[jpm]

it was just a sugestion if you want that the AutoIt installer have a restriction on .au3 file.

If you just install AutoiT .au3 and .a3x file will be allowed to be executed.

[AdamUL]

You can include binary files without using FileInstall.  Have a look at willichan's Inline Binary Files UDF.  It creates an AutoIt script file with the file in the script as a binary string, with functions to convert it back to a file.  You can then use the file with the returned path.    

 

Adam

 

[tremolux66]

@AdamUL

Thanks for the pointer; I'll take a look at it.

[tremolux66]

@AdamUL

I don't think the Inline Binary UDF approach is going to fly because one of the files I'm embedding is a 40MB Zip archive.

The .au3 file generation test I'm doing right now has been running for over 16 minutes and it's only about 10% of the way through the Zip file, so the time to complete will probably be several hours, and that's before compiling the installer. Using FileInstall(), the installer compiles in a minute or two with the same size Zip file.

Edit: The InlineMe test ran for over 24 hours and still wasn't done when I had to reboot the machine. I estimate it was about 75% of the way through the Zip file.

I'm still hoping to get the necessary exception(s) needed to use FileInstall(). Failing that, there are other methods I may pursue.

Thanks anyway.

Edited June 30, 2018 by tremolux66
Adding info