Citrix states in their article: CTX230181

CTX230181 - Understanding Application Deployment Files (ADF or .wfs ) for Installation Manager

This document was published at: http://support.citrix.com/kb/entry.jspa?externalID=CTX230181

Document ID: CTX230181, Created on: Jul 20, 2001, Updated: Apr 23, 2003

Products: Installation Manager for MetaFrame XPe

An ADF package contains an installation script file that describes the application setup requirements. Installation scripts are an accessible and customizable part of the application installation process. By learning how to edit installation scripts, you can:

• Customize the installation of applications

• Troubleshoot the installation of a difficult application

• Modify an already installed application

During packaging, Packager writes a statement in the installation script for each file the application copies to the packaging machine. This statement is called a CopyFile statement. During installation of the application on your target servers, the Installer service uses these CopyFile statements to determine where and how to copy files to the target servers. The Packager program writes each CopyFile statement in a section called &SetupConfigActions_WINNTX, where X is one of the following:

4 for Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition
5 for Windows 2000 Server

For example:

[&SetupConfigActions_WINNT4]
CopyFile=%APPDIR%CitrixCF.adfProgram FilesPaint Shop ProCDR32.flt,%PROGRAMFILES%PaintShopProCDR32.flt,Newer,,7:15:1997:4:12:0,,
CopyFile=%APPDIR%CitrixCF.adfProgram FilesPaint Shop ProCMX32.FLT,%PROGRAMFILES%PaintShop ProCMX32.FLT,Newer,,7:15:1997:4:12:0,,

The Packager program uses the following syntax to write CopyFile statements:

CopyFile=Source-file,Destination-file,Overwrite-flag,Version,Date,Compression-flag,MD5-hash

where:
Source-file is the full path and name of the file as it exists in the package.
Destination-file is the full path and name of the file as it exists on the servers.
Overwrite-flag determines the behavior of the Installer service if the destination file already exists. The Overwrite-flag can be set to one of the following values:

Never: The destination file is never overwritten.
Write: The destination file is overwritten if it is not a system, hidden, or read-only file.
Always: The destination file is always overwritten, even if the file is system, hidden, or read-only.
Newer: The destination file is overwritten if the version or date of the source file is newer than the version or date of the destination file (described below). If the version field is null (represented by a comma, not by a version number), the date is used. If the date field is null, the version field is used. If both version and date are non-null, both the date and the version must be newer for the file to be overwritten. One of Date or Version must be specified if Overwrite is Newer.

The Version field can be used only for executables or dll files that have a version resource. If the source file is newer, the destination file is overwritten even if it has read-only attributes. When copying a file over an existing destination file, the Installer service preserves the file attributes of the destination file.

Version: The optional version field specifies the resource file version of the source file. The file must be an executable or a dll. This field is used along with the overwrite-flag. The format of the version field is n.n.n.n, where each n is a number.
Date: The optional date field is the date of the source file. It is used in overwrite checking. The format of the date field is mm:dd:yyyy:hh:mm:ss.

The valid values for each date field are:

mm: Month [1,12]
dd : Day of the month [1, 31]
yyyy : Year in full format, all 4 digits [1900, (no upper bound)]
hh : Hours since midnight [0, 23]
mm: Minutes after the hour [0, 59]
ss: Seconds after the minute [0, 59]

Compression-flag: This value is represented by a null value (a comma).
MD5-hash: This value is represented by a null value (a comma).

You can modify CopyFile statements to control the behavior of the Installer service as it installs applications on your target servers.

For example, by default, during installation of applications on your target servers, the Installer service replaces a file that already exists on the target servers only if the file in the package is a newer version. If your target servers contain a version of the file that you want to preserve and the packaged installation contains a newer version of the file, modify this file's CopyFile statement. Changing its Overwrite flag to Never causes the Installer service never to replace the server's version of the file.