Build Windows installer¶

We presently have a Windows build server which is responsible for packaging up the windows installer for each release.

The NSIS program used here can also be run on Linux; however we make use of a Windows build server in order to digitally sign the result.

However you can create your own installer (using a Windows machine).

Note

This step requires a Windows machine.

Note

A community provided Powershell script that automates the following steps is available here.

Download and install NSIS.
Install the NSIS Access Control plugin. The simplest way to do this is to download the zip, extract the .DLL files (AccessControl.dll) and copy it to the NSIS plugins directory (usually C:\Program Files\NSIS\Plugins\x86-ansi).
Download and unzip the binary GeoServer package:
```
unzip geoserver-[VERSION]-bin.zip
```
Download and unzip the source GeoServer package:
```
unzip geoserver-[VERSION].zip
```
Copy the files LICENSE.md, src/release/licenses/GPL.md and the following files from src/release/installer/win from the Geoserver source GeoServer package to the root of the unpacked archive (the same directory level as the start.jar):
```
GeoServerEXE.nsi
gs.ico
header.bmp
side_left.bmp
splash.bmp
wrapper.conf
wrapper.dll
wrapper.exe
wrapper.jar
wrapper-server-license.txt
```
Right-click on the installer script GeoServerEXE.nsi and select Compile Script.
After successfully compiling the script, an installer named geoserver-[VERSION].exe will be located in the root of the unpacked archive.