zip - How to get Inno Setup to unzip a file it installed (all as part of the one installation process)

Question

To save bandwidth/space as well as prevent accidental meddling, the installation files for a database product (call it Ajax), have been zipped up (call that file "AJAX_Install_Files.ZIP). I would like to have Inno-Setup "install" (i.e., copy) the AJAX_Install_Files.ZIP file to the destination, and then Unzip the files into the same folder where the .ZIP file is located. A subsequent program would be fired off by Inno Setup to actually run the install of product "Ajax".

I've looked through the documentation, FAQ, and KB at the Inno Setup website, and this does not seem possible other than writing a Pascal script (code) - would that be correct, or are there are any alternative solutions?

Answer 1

You can use an external command line tool for unzipping your archive, see here for example. Put it in your [Files] section:

[Files]
Source: "UNZIP.EXE"; DestDir: "{tmp}"; Flags: deleteafterinstall

Then call it in your [Run] section, like this:

[Run]
Filename: "{tmp}UNZIP.EXE"; Parameters: "{tmp}ipFile.ZIP -d C:TargetDir"

(You'll probably want to take your target directory from a script variable, so there is some more work that needs to be done)