NSIS - jruby fails to access environment variables

I've made a NSIS script to create an installer for a Rails application. The application uses JRuby and Java.

In the first section of the installer I set the environment variables: I add jruby\bin to PATH and I create JAVA_HOME variable, which points to Java\jre6.

!define JRubyBinPath "$PROGRAMFILES\${PRODUCT_PUBLISHER}\JRuby\jruby-1.6.3\bin"

Function SetEnvVars    
    # set JAVA_HOME
    ${EnvVarUpdate} $0 "JAVA_HOME" "A" "HKCU" "C:\Program Files\Java\jre6"  
    # add jruby to Path
    ${EnvVarUpdate} $0 "Path" "A" "HKLM" "${JRubyBinPath}"          
FunctionEnd

Section "Pre" SEC01     
    Call SetEnvVars 
    ...
SectionEnd

** All the paths are correct. **

In the second section of the installer, after packing all the applicati开发者_JS百科on files and JRuby files, I initialize the database using the following commands:

Section "Installer" SEC02

...

    SetOutPath $INSTDIR
    nsExec::ExecToLog "jruby -S bundle exec rake db:create RAILS_ENV=production"
    nsExec::ExecToLog "jruby -S bundle exec rake db:migrate RAILS_ENV=production"
    nsExec::ExecToLog "jruby -S bundle exec rake db:seed RAILS_ENV=production"      

...

SectionEnd

The problem is that when I run the installer on a clean Windows system, all the code executes correctly, except for the lines that contain commands using "jruby". I get no error in the installer window, it just won't execute those lines.

Anyway, if I manually run those commands in a console right after the installer finishes, everything works as expected.

From what I have seen so far, the problem is that the installer cannot access the environment variables until it finishes.

* What I have done so far to solve this problem is creating the main installer Installer.exe (here I pack all the files and I set the environment variables), and another executable Init.exe which initializes the database. If I manually run these executables - first Installer.exe then Init.exe - the application installs correctly. But if I try to launch Init.exe from Installer.exe, it won't work.

However, if there would be a way to execute the "jruby" commands in a new/different thread than the one that sets the environment variables, I think the problem would be solved. But I still couldn't find the way to do that.

Thanks.

NSIS doesn't have any threading. Apparently not quite true—but in your own code, you don't get to use threads.

You may need to set PATH for the current process; I'm not familiar with ${EnvVarUpdate}, but looking at its script it doesn't seem to updates the variable in the current process. Try this:

${EnvVarUpdate} $0 PATH A HKLM "${JRubyBinPath}"  # The line you already have
System::Call Kernel32::SetEnvironmentVariable(t"PATH",tr0)

Another note: you are hard-coding JRubyBinPath; are you sure you really want to do that?