MakeNSIS on Linux

I was supposed to create a Windows installer recently, but I just hate using Windows. NSIS was the chosen installer creator. I was lucky to be able to compile the NSIS installer on Linux.

The installer just ran without any glitches on wine. So testing the installer as not an issue as well.

Let me guide you through installing NSIS on Linux and how to use it on Linux.

Requires

  1. Python
  2. SCons

Steps

  1. Download both the release and the source of x.xx.
  2. nsis-x.xx.zip nsis-x-xx-src.tar.gz

  3. Extract both into one parent parent directory
  4. <parent>
    |
    +-- nsis-x.xx
    +-- nsis-x.xx-src

  5. Change to the source directory
  6. $ cd nsis-x.xx-src

  7. Compile makensis using scon
  8. $ scons SKIPSTUBS=all SKIPPLUGINS=all SKIPUTILS=all SKIPMISC=all

  9. Copy makensis to the release
  10. $ cp build/release/makensis/makensis ../nsis-x.xx/makensis

  11. Change to the <parent>
  12. $ cd ..

  13. Install – Copy makensis to the install location
  14. $ sudo cp -r nsis-x.xx/* /usr/local/share/nsis/

  15. Create the link from the bin directory to the makensis such that
    makensis is accessible from the command line.
  16. $ sudo link /usr/local/share/nsis/makensis /usr/bin/makensis