VerifyOfficialBuild - some clarification

[joeloff]

Question

I'm looking at the VerifyOfficialBuild target and corresponding error message. Could you clarify your expectations around usage of WiX Toolset name? For example, it's relatively simple to modify a package ID, but modifying something like a namespace in an assembly that includes WixToolset impacts every single file in the source base.

Today, .NET builds the WiX Toolset from source because we have to sign all the binaries with our own certificates. At the moment we modify the package IDs so they don't clash with the official toolset, and we don't publish them to NuGet.org, they remain on the .NET package feeds. We also modified the versioning schema. We follow the major.minor.patch, but always convert it into a prerelease value, e.g., 5.0.2-dotnet.123456

As an example, the items highlighted in blue can be changed, but has functional impact, while the ones in yellow are much easier to modify.

Open Source Maintenance Fee

• I (or an organization I'm a member of) pay the Open Source Maintenance Fee by sponsoring the wixtoolset project because I support the maintainers.

[robmen]

Still seems like there should maybe be an easier way to do this sign all the binaries with our own certificates. Hmm.

The goal is to avoid confusion about whether a release is ours or yours. Publicly using our logo and name has the highest chance of confusion. :)

Note: You can't remove the copyright. :)

[joeloff]

Thanks Rob. This is why we changed the ID and versioning scheme for the package itself and why we do not publish it to NuGet org either. I think I missed the logo, so I'll get that addressed ASAP. Our aim was to make as few changes as possible to build inside our environment and to more easily consume upstream changes, but also to ensure there is no confusion about the two builds.

What are your thoughts on the AssemblyTitle / identity? When debugging, I can see that as potentially causing confusion. We could look at also altering the public key token when we build locally. That would at least change the qualified name.

We also made tweaks to support customer specific features that has no benefit to other consumers, which automatically requires us to build to build from source.