NSIS - how to recursively include all files only from source folder and subfolders?

Question

everyone. I am trying to include some "parentdir" with files to my installer. The thing is: I use /r parameter to include all files and folders, like this:

File /r "parentdir\*.*"

This command include all files and subfolders.

Is any chance to include FILES ONLY from all subfolders(example below) to out directory?

What I have is:

<dir>parentdir
  file1.txt
  file2.txt
  <dir> directory1
       file3.txt
       file4.txt
  <dir> directory2
       file5.txt
       file6.txt
       <dir> directory3
             file6.txt

What I want to get in my OUT directory is:

<dir>parentdir
  file1.txt
  file2.txt
  file3.txt
  file4.txt
  file5.txt
  file6.txt
  file6.txt

I've already tried to do like this:

SetOutPath "$INSTDIR\parentdir"
File "parentdir\directory1\*.*"
File "parentdir\directory2\*.*"
File "parentdir\directory2\directory3\*.*"

And I got what I want. BUT

Is any chance to do it not using names of subfolders? I need it in case when script won't know exact names of all subfolders (if new subfolders will be added).

May I make my installer that flexible?

Thank you!

Answer 1

You can create a batch file (or any other program) that searches the disk and writes File instructions to a .nsh file. Your .nsi would first use !system to execute the external application that generates the .nsh and then !include it:

Section
SetOutPath "$INSTDIR\parentdir"
!tempfile filelist
!system '"generatefilelist.bat" ".\parentdir" "${filelist}"'
!include "${filelist}"
!delfile "${filelist}"
SectionEnd

...and the batch-file might look something like this:

@echo off
FOR /R "%~1" %%A IN (*.txt) DO (
    >> "%~2" echo.File "%%~A"
)

If the pattern is simple enough you don't need a separate batch-file, you can just use cmd.exe directly:

Section
SetOutPath "$INSTDIR\parentdir"
!tempfile filelist
!system 'FOR /R ".\parentdir" %A IN (*.txt) DO @( >> "${filelist}" echo.File "%~A" )'
!include "${filelist}"
!delfile "${filelist}"
SectionEnd