InstallRS

A Rust-based framework for building self-contained software installers.

Are you tired of wrestling with clunky installer frameworks? That only compile and run on a developer-unfriendly OS? That force you to write your installer logic in a 1990's scripting language without proper flow control and error handling? That have restrictive licenses and closed-source implementations? Do you want the full power of Rust's ecosystem at your fingertips?

InstallRS is here to revolutionize the way you create software installers.

Note: This project has been written to a large degree with AI coding tools. While the author has remained in the loop for design decisions, architecture, and testing, the code may reflect the limitations of the AI tools used. Contributions to refine and improve the codebase are welcome.

Highlights

• Write installer logic in plain Rust, with the full standard library and crate ecosystem at your disposal.
• Self-contained binaries. Embedded files ship inside a single executable via include_bytes!, with optional LZMA / gzip / bzip2 compression and SHA-256 payload integrity verification at startup.
• Automatic uninstaller. The CLI generates a matching uninstaller binary embedded into the installer; one install() + uninstall() pair in your code covers both.
• Optional native wizard GUI — Win32 on Windows (via winsafe), GTK3 on Linux (via gtk-rs) — with welcome, license, components, directory picker, install, finish, and error pages, plus custom pages for arbitrary inputs. Runs headless when the user passes --headless, so the same definition serves both modes.
• Component system — let users pick optional features via wizard checkboxes or --components / --with / --without flags.
• Progress with meaning. Step-weighted per component, with both one-shot and streaming APIs for custom work.
• Cancellation built in — every file op checks a shared flag. Cancel button and Ctrl+C both flip it (first press cancels, second exits).
• Windows polish — automatic PNG-to-ICO conversion, VERSIONINFO, UAC manifests, DPI awareness.

Usage overview

Write a library crate with install and uninstall functions:

use anyhow::Result;
use installrs::{source, Installer};

pub fn install(i: &mut Installer) -> Result<()> {
    i.process_commandline()?;
    i.set_out_dir("C:/my_app");
    i.dir(source!("assets"), "assets").install()?;
    i.file(source!("app.exe"), "app.exe").install()?;
    i.uninstaller("uninstall.exe").install()?;
    Ok(())
}

pub fn uninstall(i: &mut Installer) -> Result<()> {
    i.process_commandline()?;
    i.remove("C:/my_app").install()?;
    Ok(())
}

Then build with the installrs CLI:

installrs --target ./my-installer --output installer.exe

The repo's example/ directory is a complete working installer demonstrating GUI, components, translations, custom pages, and headless mode — the best way to see the whole system in action.

Documentation

• Getting Started — zero-to-first-installer walkthrough.
• Builder CLI reference — installrs command flags and env variables.
• Building for production — cross-compilation, size and speed tuning, reproducibility, code signing, release CI.
• Embedded files, builder ops, and progress — the source! macro, the fluent file / dir / remove / shortcut / registry / step API, and the progress model.
• GUI Wizard — wizard builder, custom pages, dialogs, headless mode.
• Installer API — selectable components plus custom --flags.
• Internationalization — translating wizard strings, locale detection, and the pre-wizard language picker.
• Windows Resources — icons, version info, UAC manifests.
• Architecture — how the codebase is organized and what the generated installer crates look like.
• API reference on docs.rs — every public type and method.
• Changelog — release history.

Requirements

• Rust toolchain (stable)
• The installrs CLI, which you can install with cargo install installrs.
• (Linux GUI builds) GTK3 dev headers: libgtk-3-dev on Debian/Ubuntu, gtk3-devel on Fedora/RHEL.
• The target crate must be a library crate exporting install and uninstall

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE.txt file for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit issues and pull requests.