How can I run msiexec from cygwin to unpack a msi?

Question

I need to unpack (not execute, unpack) a msi in a cygwin makefile.

If I invoke from the windows command prompt the following

msiexec /a package.msi /qn TARGETDIR=C:\foo

The package is correctly deployed in C:\foo. However, if I try to perform the exact same operation from the cygwin prompt

msiexec /a package.msi /qn TARGETDIR=C:\\foobaz

All I get is the msiexec window stating the usage. I can solve this problem in two ways, either running successfully msiexec as above, or by starting a windows command from the makefile, and have it invoke that operation.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Found it. I need to invoke

run msiexec /a package.msi /qn TARGETDIR=C:\\foobaz

in cygwin. I have no idea why, but it works.

Answer 2

I've gone into the same problem, and right after I've seen this, I figured it out by myself that the slashes of the two options (or switches in terms of windows) "/a" and "/qn" should be double slashes "//":

msiexec //a package.msi //qn TARGETDIR=C:\\foobaz

That should work, at least on my machine it does.

Answer 3

An msi can be unpacked with most zip utilities, like 7-Zip. It will contain lots of things (like registry keys etc) that are irrelevant in a Linux environment, but you'll be able to get at any text, source or exe's.