Error "Value of [Setup] section directive "OutputBaseFileName" is invalid."

[elendil-software]

Hi,

When

- name: Compile .ISS to .EXE Installer
  if: ${{ inputs.build_installer == true }}
  uses: Minionguyjpro/Inno-Setup-Action@v1.2.7
  with:
    path: Output\InnoSetup\Setup.iss
    options: /Dversion=${{ steps.gitversion.outputs.MajorMinorPatch }} /DVersionInfoVersion=${{ steps.gitversion.outputs.MajorMinorPatch }}

which result in

Run Minionguyjpro/Inno-Setup-Action@v1.2.7
  with:
    path: Output\InnoSetup\Setup.iss
    options: /Dversion=0.1.0 /DVersionInfoVersion=0.1.0
  env:
     ...

I get the error

Error: Execution failed: Error on line 23 in D:\a\RefractionMeteoFileUpdater\RefractionMeteoFileUpdater\Output\InnoSetup\Setup.iss: Value of [Setup] section directive "OutputBaseFileName" is invalid.

Line 23 is

OutputBaseFilename=Refraction Meteo File Updater Setup v{#version}

and version is passed as parameter and a fallback value is defined at the begining of the script with

#ifndef version
  #define version "0.9.0"
#endif

This script works locally and when calling Inno Setup installed in action runner up to windows server 2022 (removed in windows server 2025)

[Minionguyjpro]

I'll have to look into this. So basically you're saying that it works on Server 2022 images but not on 2025 images?

Hmm that's interesting, it shouldn't have changed the installation of Inno Setup itself (it installs by this script now due to the removal, but nothing that should cause different behavior).

That is unless they have changed the paths for workspace folders, although in that case I assume it might affect more projects.

[elendil-software]

So basically you're saying that it works on Server 2022 images but not on 2025 images?

Yes.

If this may help I can try without the {#version} variable to see if this change anything

[Minionguyjpro]

So basically you're saying that it works on Server 2022 images but not on 2025 images?

Yes.

If this may help I can try without the {#version} variable to see if this change anything

Try that, I might have some parsing issues when it comes to those in my code.

[elendil-software]

It works without the {#version} variable.

And here is what I get when I install it :

So I guess that the error is due to the fact the OutputBaseFilename variable has the value : Refraction Meteo File Updater Setup v/Dversion=0.1.0

[Minionguyjpro]

Could you try running the action off the main branch right now? I pushed a commit that swapped the orders of the arguments passed to the Inno Setup (before was arguments first and then script, now it's first the script and then other arguments) that might fix it.

[elendil-software]

Still doesn't work :

Error: Execution failed: Error on line 23 in D:\a\RefractionMeteoFileUpdater\RefractionMeteoFileUpdater\Output\InnoSetup\Setup.iss: Value of [Setup] section directive "OutputBaseFileName" is invalid.

If this can help, I can make my repository public, there is nothing secret in there. So you can fork it and try on it.

[Minionguyjpro]

Still doesn't work :

Error: Execution failed: Error on line 23 in D:\a\RefractionMeteoFileUpdater\RefractionMeteoFileUpdater\Output\InnoSetup\Setup.iss: Value of [Setup] section directive "OutputBaseFileName" is invalid.

If this can help, I can make my repository public, there is nothing secret in there. So you can fork it and try on it.

Sounds like a good idea.

[elendil-software]

Here it is : https://github.com/elendil-software/RefractionMeteoFileUpdater/

The Inno Setup call is in : https://github.com/elendil-software/RefractionMeteoFileUpdater/blob/main/.github/workflows/sw_build.yml
which is called from, for example : https://github.com/elendil-software/RefractionMeteoFileUpdater/blob/main/.github/workflows/Pre-Version.yml

[elendil-software]

@Minionguyjpro
Did you have the time to check this issue ?

[ximion]

I am also affected by this, but for me the issue appeared when Dependabot suggested upgrading the Action from Minionguyjpro/Inno-Setup-Action@v1.2.2 to Minionguyjpro/Inno-Setup-Action@v1.2.7.

With 1.2.2 I do not get this issue at all and builds work fine, with 1.2.7 builds fail. I also have a #define in my OutputBaseFilename that is defined as a parameter of the action. The value of OutputBaseFilename is MyApp-{#AppVersion}_Setup_win64.

[Minionguyjpro]

@Minionguyjpro Did you have the time to check this issue ?

Sorry for not replying. I see your workflow uses subfolder Output, which doesn't exist unless I missed the step where it would copy into the Output folder (if so my bad).

[elendil-software]

@Minionguyjpro
it's created on build step, which execute :
dotnet build ./RefractionMeteoFileUpdater/RefractionMeteoFileUpdater.csproj --configuration Release --output ./Output --framework ${{ env.dotnet_version }}

[ximion]

It looks like for me this seems to choke on the +git string in the version name of my app. If I remove that, I get a different error about it not finding a file for the installer, and the file does exist... Haven't found a way to get rid of that error. The 1.2.2 action works fine.

[ximion]

Just did some testing, all versions prior to 1.2.6 are fine, that version is the first one that fails and shows the Value of [Setup] section directive "OutputBaseFileName" is invalid. error. So this is not new since 1.2.7, but existed in 1.2.6 as well.

[barasimumatik]

So this will be a long comment, because I bashed my head against this for way too long and need to vent 😅

It looks like the switch from exec to execFile (i.e. one of the changes between 1.2.5 and 1.2.6) causes the issue.

With exec the command is passed together with the arguments in one string like so

exec("command.exe arg1 arg2 arg3", ...other exec options) (which evaluates to command.exe arg1 arg2 arg3)

With execFile, the options are passed separately as an array of strings:

execFile("command.exe", ["arg1", "arg2", "arg3"], ... other execFile options) (which also evaluates to command.exe arg1 arg2 arg3)

With the following workflow step

- name: Compile .ISS to .EXE Installer
  if: ${{ inputs.build_installer == true }}
  uses: Minionguyjpro/Inno-Setup-Action@v1.2.7
  with:
    path: setup.iss
    options: arg1 arg2 arg3

each action input is passed in an environment variable where the name is the name of the action input in upper case + the prefix INPUT_. E.g. INPUT_PATH=setup.iss and INPUT_OPTIONS="arg1 arg2 arg3".

In v1.2.5, the action reads the INPUT_OPTIONS with getInput which will simply return the string "arg1 arg2 arg3", so the exec call evaluates to iscc.exe setup.iss arg1 arg2 arg3 as expected.

In v1.2.6 the action reads the INPUT_OPTIONS with getMultilineInput which reads an input, splits it by newlines and trims the whitespaces from each element. The execFile call evaluates to iscc.exe setup.iss "arg1 arg2 arg3".

I don't know if Inno Setup ignores invalid arguments like that or not, but either way, this doesn't seem to work.

I experimented with different variants of YAML string formats and found two workarounds for v1.2.6+ that seem to work (by adding the right amount of newlines).

First:

- name: Compile .ISS to .EXE Installer
  if: ${{ inputs.build_installer == true }}
  uses: Minionguyjpro/Inno-Setup-Action@v1.2.7
  with:
    path: setup.iss
    options: "arg1 \narg2  \narg3"

Which results in the getMultilineInput returning an array with three elements: ["arg1", "arg2", "arg3"].

Second:

- name: Compile .ISS to .EXE Installer
  if: ${{ inputs.build_installer == true }}
  uses: Minionguyjpro/Inno-Setup-Action@v1.2.7
  with:
    path: setup.iss
    options: |-
      arg1 
      arg2 
      arg3

The |- block scalar format keeps newlines between the lines, ignores leading whitespaces and strips the last newline (the other variants | and |+ handles newlines differently and will not work). This should be equivalent to the first version (i.e. a single string with newlines between the parts).

So in this case I think this should work:

- name: Compile .ISS to .EXE Installer
  if: ${{ inputs.build_installer == true }}
  uses: Minionguyjpro/Inno-Setup-Action@v1.2.7
  with:
    path: Output\InnoSetup\Setup.iss
    options: |-
      /Dversion=${{ steps.gitversion.outputs.MajorMinorPatch }} 
      /DVersionInfoVersion=${{ steps.gitversion.outputs.MajorMinorPatch }}

Pro tip: https://yaml-multiline.info/