In WiX files, what does Name=“SourceDir” refer to?

Question

WiX files always seem to include this line:

What is \"SourceDir\"? What is it used fo

Answer 1

None of this was really helpful for me. I found this thread wondering how to make a Debug build, where my source files (the ones going in the installer) could be pulled from either the "Release" build dir or the "Debug" build dir of the project I am trying to make an installer for.

After some grepping, I found the actual path in the wixproj file, there SourceDir is defined as:

$(SolutionDir)distribution\Release

which has really nothing to do with installation files and project files. I was able to add another PropertyGroup that mirrored the release group which now pointed to my debug files:

$(SolutionDir)distribution\Debug

Hope this helps someone. I know it's a little off topic, but hopefully it helps someone in the future. Not sure why the project plug-in does not expose this value? Or am I missing that?