Talk:Nullsoft Scriptable Install System

What is the format of the output file

What is the format of the output file? If I wanted to write an unpack how would I set about it? NigelHorne 13:04, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

NSIS generates installers, usually in the .exe format. It is not a compresser like WinZip, but utilizes 3d-party compression formats (like LZAW) to get smaller installation files; writing an unpacker is not needed. 62.251.111.252 12:14, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

Censorship

Why there is no info on the Firefox / NSIS spyware scandal? Some malicious code installs into Firefox browsers and Thunderbird mail clients via JAR files by abusing a yet unpatched NSIS security hole and the bombards the user with many pop-up windows and downloads further spyware. The Net is up in arms about it, especially in Europe, where Firefox has 20% share in browsing. Firefox developers accuse NSIS developers of indifference and lazyness in fixing. 195.70.32.136 09:26, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Do you have a reliable source in english? If there is a source it might be worth adding-Ravedave ^{(help name my baby)} 15:33, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

There's no scandal or any such thing. NSIS Media is an annoying adware program bluntly using the NSIS name for who knows what reason. All I know is that instead of them getting all the hate mail, it's me. This is not related to a security hole in NSIS. A security hole won't help it install itself anyway. You don't have NSIS installed on your computer. NSIS only used to create installers and keeps nothing on the user's computer. Firefox developers have never contacted me about anything regarding this issue because they know I have nothing to do with or about this. It's just an adware that reinstalls itself, partly as a Firefox extension, as long as its carrier program is installed. --Kichik 14:10, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

This is what happens when people see "NSIS" and "virus" in the same sentence. They they are too overwhelmed with possibilities of scandal that their imagination take over. A.Grandfield 26/01/2009 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.203.238.90 (talk) 16:32, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Portable apps

What about it's common use in distributing applications as portable. Many portable application websites recommend NSIS as a method (sometimes even the main method) of distributing portable apps. I would write about it, but I can't really find a source... I don't think listing a few websites which do counts. If someone knows of one could they post it here, or even write it into the article? --Nathan (Talk) 00:51, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

side notes

The download plugin of NSIS suffers from a timeout bug - if an anti-virus (e.q. Kaspersky anti-virus) takes too long to check the file, NSIS will time out and the setup will fail. Notable examples of this include IMVU. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Yura87 (talk • contribs) 09:26, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

Please stop removing valuable contents

This article covers a widely used software. Please stop removing it. A redirect to the defunct company Nullsoft is inadequate. The discussion at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Nullsoft_Scriptable_Install_System is no justification. It was a narrow decision with only very few expressed opinions, and referred to different contents. At least give this article a couple of months to consolidate before you renew your deletion request. -- Frau Holle (talk) 20:34, 25 April 2024 (UTC)

Dear colleague:

While the discussion you are pointing to indeed attracted very few participants, there is no other WP:consensus as of today. Therefore, the proper way appears to be to look for a new consensus. The notability guidelines for us are laid down by WP:NSOFT#Inclusion (again, while this is not an official policy, this is the best we have). Neither NSOFT, not WP:GNG has "widespread use" as a criteria of notability. My $0.02:

1. the current state of the article does not show any notability. Of the 9 references 3 refer to the (definitely non-independent) manual, 6 others are notifications of the bugs without any useful details about the package itself;
2. therefore, the text that is currently supported by independent sources would look like NSIS contained multiple exploited security problems^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}. Thsi line can be easily inserted into the Nullsoft article;
3. in the current state, per above, the article requires the {{notability}}, {{affiliated sources}} and {{sources}} hatnotes that I would re-insert pending the outcome of this discussion.

Independent sources are needed, as there are gajillions of software packages that are both used by someone and at the same time totally non-notable. For avoidance of doubt, I assumed notability at first and did dive into Google sites for independent sources, but came up empty. Someone else might be more skilled or lucky. My proposal would be to go back to the consensual redirect while we are waiting for these sources. Викидим (talk) 21:10, 25 April 2024 (UTC)

You are refering to criteria that are meant as sufficient, not as necessary conditions.

Nobody will ever write a book over this boring topic. However, a Google search brings up tons of technical documents that cover NSIS. You may rightly reject each single of them as not being a reliable source. But in their totality, they do prove that NSIS is an important brick in the current software universe. Furthermore, there are a Debian package and a CPack generator for creating NSIS installers. Few other installers can boast such a support. Finally: this article exists in 20 other languages. They are all erring, and you are getting it right?? -- Frau Holle (talk) 06:04, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

I understand your points and they are perfectly valid (this abundance of material inspired me in my original search for better sources). Let's wait for other editors. In the meantime, I will try the search yet again. Викидим (talk) 06:51, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

Thank you for this kind response. I started a new section on third-party front-ends, with references to highly reputable sources like the CMake and Debian documentation. -- Frau Holle (talk) 06:57, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

New search located an independent source that states it being a "popular alternative" to proprietary packages. It is not great as WP:RS go, but I am now dead sure that given more time additional independent sources that contain a paragraph-to-page worth of information can be found. I removed my notability hatnote. Викидим (talk) 07:43, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

Thank you for your impartial effort. While I am glad about the result, I'd still question the pertinence of rules that value a short paragraph in a sloppily written book (the reviews on Amazon are devastating) more than any number of thoughtful blog pages. -- Frau Holle (talk) 09:01, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

There is nothing wrong with the rules IMHO. You can blame me, though, for not doing better diligence prior to you pointing out the standing-out popularity of the package, but errare humanum est. I did a better search and am now convinced that other sources do also exist. I can put few more hours in and locate better sources, now that I figured out good sets of keywords, or go with my hunch and finish right now; I chose to do the latter. Blogs are OK as long as they are written by recognized experts, BTW. Викидим (talk) 09:21, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

It may be worth pointing out that I suspect that the user who originally instigated the deletions appears a little suspicious and I'm worried that these deletions that they have been involved with have some ulterior motives or are part of some conflict of interest. Aside from editing a couple of Armenian articles the only other edits that they have made is to attempt to delete installer technology related articles. If I'd been aware of the deletion discussion for this article I'd likely have voted to keep it as it is widely used outside of its original developer and has a large number of results in published books, searchable via Google Books or Google Scholar. TubularWorld (talk) 10:02, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

The AfD is going to be respected until the reasons to redirect are overcome. They can, theoretically, be overcome editorially, but there's no sign of that yet. A reference to a particular book was added but all the book says on the topic is: Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS) is a script-driven installation authoring tool from Nullsoft, the same company that created Winamp. It has become a popular alternative to proprietary commercial tools such as InstallShield. The current version of NSIS has a modern graphical user interface, LZMA compression, multilingual support, and a simple plugin system. You can explore more about the tool at https://nsis.sourceforge.io/Main_Page. Apart from handling the situation editorially by finding suitable sources, the outcome of the AfD can be challeged at Wikipedia:Deletion review. @Barseghian Lilia: The editor above me is worried about your potential "ulterior motives or ... conflict of interest". What do you say to that? Are you a bad actor?—Alalch E. 00:30, 29 April 2024 (UTC)

References

Undeletion request filed at Requests_for_undeletion#Nullsoft_Scriptable_Install_System. Please don't play games with us. We proved notability by adding a book reference. What's wrong with that? -- Frau Holle (talk) 11:53, 29 April 2024 (UTC)

Following advise from User:UtherSRG, I moved the last intact version of the page to Draft:Nullsoft Scriptable Install System. Let's improve that page before we add the {{subst:submit}} label to request a fresh review. -- Frau Holle (talk) 13:50, 29 April 2024 (UTC)

@Alalch E.: @Barseghian Lilia: Can you please spell out your requirements so that we do not run through another useless loop?

How about Sourceforge Project of the Month, https://sourceforge.net/blog/potm-2006-01? If this isn't a suitable source and a strong argument for notability, then we might have a deeper problem. -- Frau Holle (talk) 14:14, 29 April 2024 (UTC)