Cargo-bundle was supposed to do that, but only the Mac part was completed. Nobody ever did the .msi output. I've been trying to get someone interested in doing that. That task needs someone very familiar with the Microsoft ecosystem, which I am not. Discussion in Rust tools forum here.[1]
I wonder if InnoSetup could be a good point of reference for anyone interested. It is in Delphi though, but there is also this guide I found whilst trying to figure out if you could run Inno Setup on Linux:
I looked at that crate.
That lets you read and write .msi files, but those are just containers. It doesn't help you set up the rather complicated contents required. Someone who's into the Windows ecosystem could probably use it to do the limited things cargo-bundler does. The neat thing about cargo-bundle is that it only needs the info from the Cargo.toml file to drive the bundling process. Most Windows installer builders involve manually constructing Windows-specific XML files.
Ah I see. Honestly if I knew Rust better I wouldnt mind taking a stab at the project but I am cozy with dotnet currently. I love building systems tools but very little work I apply for does just that. It is a shame companies dont invest more into R&D.
The Rust part of this isn't that hard. cargo bundler already has a place where the .msi output generator is supposed to go. The reading of the cargo.toml file and the writing in .msi format is already written. It's just generating the Microsoft-specific content for the .msi file that's hard. That takes Microsoft platform expertise.
