what is the difference between minor upgrade and patch ..(Am using Installshield)
Hi All,
I'm having 6 yrs experience in this field (self learning), I want to know the standard of Minor Upgrade.
1. If the full installer size is 1 GB, then how much the SIZE would be minor installer ..?
2. Differentiate files only want to deliver to customer, then the way is "PATCH"(patch design in installshield). is it correct or not..?
Please give me the proper explanation.Â
1 Comment
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The minor upgrade may be more than 1 GB. It can even be 100 MB. It depends! Depends on the installer and the payload that it is going to deliver. - nagendrasingh 6 years ago
Answers (1)
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Posted by:
anonymous_9363
6 years ago
how much the SIZE would be minor installer ..?
That depends entirely on the number and size of files that your patch is going to change.
2. Differentiate files only want to deliver to customer, then the way is "PATCH"(patch design in installshield). is it correct or not..?
I've always worked on the basis that, just as in software development, a patch will change existing files/data in a package whereas an update/upgrade may also add or remove files/data/feature(s)/component(s) to/from a package.
MSDN says this:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa370579(v=vs.85).aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa370578(v=vs.85).aspx
Comments:
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Thanks for the reply, But my question is "What is Minor installer"..? It will be full installer or difference files only..? - perumal9791 6 years ago
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I think you mean "minor upgrade". A minor upgrade is not the full installer, as this would then be called a major upgrade. A minor upgrade is defined in the MSI SDK thus:
Minor Upgrades
A minor upgrade is an update that makes changes to many resources. None of the changes can require changing the ProductCode. An update requires a major upgrade to change the ProductCode. A minor upgrade can be used to add new features and components but cannot reorganize the feature-component tree. Minor upgrades provide product differentiation without actually defining a different product. A typical minor upgrade includes all fixes in previous small updates combined into a patch. A minor upgrade is also commonly referred to as a service pack (SP) update. For more information about which updates do not require changing the ProductCode see Changing the Product Code.
A minor upgrade changes the ProductVersion property. Changing the product version of the application means that the different updates have an order. For example, if a patch existed to update v 9.0 to v 9.1, and another patch existed to patch v 9.1 to v 9.2, the installer can enforce the correct order by checking the product version before applying the patch. This also prevents the v 9.1 to v 9.2 patch from being applied to v 9.0. For patches, this ordering is enforced through the product version–validation bits set in the transforms included in the patch package.
A minor upgrade and a small update differ in that a minor upgrade changes the package code and product version. See Small Updates for guidelines on the kinds of updates that can be handled by a small update or minor upgrade. Minor upgrades are shipped as a full product installation package or as a patch package. However, a minor upgrade cannot use a different volume label for the new version.
So what you need to be mindful of, is that a patch is considered to be a minor upgrade and that Microsoft intend different things with the terms "upgrade" and "update". So your best research tool is the MSI SDK, which is online these days, but which was offered in the past as a convenient CHM help file which I always have on my desktop as a reference tool, even after 25 years or more of MSI packaging. - EdT 6 years ago
