Extracting Files from Cabinets

You can extract files from a cabinet in two ways. The first and simplest way is to take advantage of the automatic cabinet processing built into the setup functions.

The installation functions, such as SetupCommitFileQueue1ADS_1C, SetupInstallFile5WF_.., and SetupInstallFromInfSectionK132WM, check the compression on each file. If the file is in a cabinet, the functions first search for a file of that name outside the cabinet. If found, the functions install the external file, ignoring the file inside the cabinet. This enables you to update a single file inside the cabinet without rebuilding the cabinet.

The setup functions also track which files in a cabinet have been retrieved, so that a file is extracted only once, even if it is installed several times.

The second way to extract files from a cabinet is by using SetupIterateCabinet149AH8C. This function iterates through each file in a cabinet, sending a notification to a callback routine for each file found. The callback routine then returns a value that indicates whether the file should be extracted or skipped.

Note  The Setup API does not supply a default callback routine to handle cabinet notifications. If you call SetupIterateCabinet explicitly, you must supply a callback routine to process the cabinet notifications that the function returns.