How can I exclude files from being harvested with heat (WiX 3.5)?

Question

I would like to harvest a folder with a lot of files by using heat.exe. But instead of harvesting all files, I would like to exclude specific file extensions like "*.txt" or something like that. How can I do this?

Answer 1

I think the only option for now is to harvest the entire folder and apply a transform to the resulting .wxs file (see -t:<xsl> switch) to exclude what is not required (txt files in your case). However, I didn't try the 3.5 version of heat (judging based on the 3.0), but I don't think there are changes in this area.

Answer 2

I'm not a huge proponent of this pattern. How do you ensure change control when using a non-deterministic process? How do you know a file that appeared in a directory really should ship in a product and how do you know a file that vanished from the directory shouldn't break a build? How do you know you are breaking the component rules and creating servicability issues?

I used to do dynamic file linking in the 1990's because it was "easy" but I can remember it biting me many times and I haven't done it ever since.

I know Bob Arnson used to agree with this view point:

http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg03420.html

But now in WiX 3.5 I'm starting to see capabilities that support dynamic linking and I just don't understand why they would go that way. I'd much rather update a WXS file and check it back into source control then risk putting my deployment process on autopilot.