When we install our product including GS we just deliver the files in the GS folder layout and do NOT set any registry or environment variables. I tried executing setupgs.exe on my system after I unzipped 8.63 to see how it would set the registry up but it's looking for a filelist.txt which I do not see anywhere. In our code we pass GS all the path names as arguments (lib, resource, etc) but now I'm trying to use some 3rd party tools (epstool) that seem to rely on environment varables or registry settings. I understand that HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Artifex Ghostscript should have something under it but not sure what. Any help is appreciated Tony
I am cc'ing Russell Lang (author of epstool) to see if he has any ideas while I look into this.
If you unzip gs864w32.exe (or the older gs863w32.exe) entirely, then you will find a filelist.txt in the same directory as setupgs.exe. If you open gs864w32.exe in WinZip, and double click on setupgs.exe, it may not recognise setupgs.exe as a setup program and consequently fail to unzip everything to a temporary directory, in which case you will get the error you describe. The installer for the GPL version of ghostscript creates a registry entry named HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\GPL Ghostscript\8.64 sets the following named values underneath GS_DLL GS_LIB Ghostscript first tries to read these values from HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\GPL Ghostscript\8.64 and then if that fails it uses HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\GPL Ghostscript\8.64 Code for this is in base/gp_wgetv.c GS 8.64 has the resources compiled into the DLL. You do not need to set any registry entries, and can run gswin32c.exe provided gsdll32.dll is in the same directory. GS 8.63 on Windows uses Resources in separate files and you do need to set GS_LIB appropriately. Another option is to know where you put ghostscript, and to pass the the appropriate directories on the -I command line.
I'll assume in the Artifex version I can replace "GPL Ghostscript" with "Artifex Ghostscript" ? If that is the case you can close this BUG. At the moment I'm off in the "deep" weeds of another problem.
Thanks, Russell, for the explanation. Yes, the Artifex customer version of Ghostscript uses the "Artifex Ghostscript" registry key in place of "GPL Ghostscript" so that customer versions can be installed on a machine independently of a GPL version on the same machine, intended to isolate OEM customers from being messed up by the end user customer installing a GPL version of Ghostscript (preventing disappearing files if the GPL Ghostscript product is uninstalled). I'll go ahead and close the bug -- re-open it of you need more info.