NSIS for Visual Studio Code

Language syntax, IntelliSense and build system for Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS).

Screenshot

Screenshot of NSIS in Visual Studio Code with Hopscotch theme

Features

Language syntax for NSIS and NSIS Language Files
IntelliSense for core NSIS commands, variables and predefines
IntelliSense for core plug-ins:
- AdvSplash
- Banner
- BgImage
- Dialer
- InstallOptions
- LangDLL
- Math
- nsDialogs
- nsExec
- NSISdl
- Splash
- StartMenu
- System
- UserInfo
- VPatch
IntelliSense for core libraries (“Useful Headers”):
- FileFunc
- LogicLib
- Memento
- Modern UI
- MultiUser
- Sections
- StrFunc
- WinMessages
- WinVer
- WordFunc
- x64
NSIS Diagnostics
IntelliSense for Haskell NSIS
Drunken NSIS
Build Tools
Environment Variables

You can further extend NSIS support with IntelliSense for third-party plug-ins.

Installation

Extension Marketplace

Launch Quick Open, paste the following command, and press Enter

ext install idleberg.nsis

CLI

With shell commands installed, you can use the following command to install the extension:

$ code --install-extension idleberg.nsis

Packaged Extension

Download the packaged extension from the the release page and install it from the command-line:

$ code --install-extension path/to/nsis-*.vsix

Alternatively, you can download the packaged extension from the Open VSX Registry or install it using the ovsx command-line tool:

$ ovsx get idleberg.nsis

Clone Repository

Change to your Visual Studio Code extensions directory:

# Windows Powershell
cd $Env:USERPROFILES\.vscode\extensions

# Windows Command Prompt
$ cd %USERPROFILE%\.vscode\extensions

# Linux & macOS
$ cd ~/.vscode/extensions/

Clone repository as nsis:

$ git clone https://github.com/idleberg/vscode-nsis nsis

Install dependencies:

cd nsis && npm install

Usage

IntelliSense

With most commands, you can specify available options before completion. For instance, rather than completing RequestExecutionLevel and then specifying an option, you can directly choose RequestExecutionLevel user from the completion menu.

To complete compile time commands, variables or predefines, make sure to omit special characters like !, $ and brackets:

include completes to !include
INSTDIR completes to $INSTDIR
NSIS_VERSION completes to ${NSIS_VERSION}

However, you have to type __LINE__ to complete to ${__LINE__}.

There are several special cases for your convenience:

MB_OK completes to MessageBox MB_OK "messagebox_text"
onInit completes to a Function .onInit block
LogicLib completes to !include "LogicLib.nsh"

Drunken NSIS

Fuzzy syntax completions are available through “Drunken NSIS”, which tries to iron out some of the inconsistencies of the NSIS language, for instance word order.

Example:

Interchangable word order of NSIS language and library functions

ReadFile completes to FileRead
INIStrRead completes to ReadINIStr
SetSectionText completes to SectionSetText
SetLog completes to LogSet
FirstFind completes to FindFirst
${LineFind} completes to ${FindLine}

Building

Before you can build, make sure makensis is in your PATH environment variable. Alternatively, you can specify the path to makensis in your user settings.

makensis

Example:

{
  "nsis.pathToMakensis": "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\NSIS\\makensis.exe"
}

To trigger a build, select NSIS: Save & Compile” from the command-palette or use the default keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+B. The strict option treats warnings as errors and can be triggered using Ctrl+Alt+Shift+B.

Options

You can tweak your default settings by editing your user settings.

Setting	Description
`pathToMakensis`	Specify the full path to `makensis`
`preprocessMode`	Linter runs in the much faster pre-process mode, but ignores warnings
`processHeaders`	Specifiy whether to compile `.nsh` files
`overrideCompression`	Overrides compression settings to speed up diagnostics
`showNotifications`	Show build notifications indicating success or failure
`alwaysShowOutput`	Output channel will only be shown on errors
`alwaysOpenBuildTask`	Specify whether to open the newly created build task
`showVersionAsInfoMessage`	Specify whether to show version as message
`showFlagsAsObject`	Specify whether to format compiler flags as JSON
`useWineToRun`	Runs compiled installers using Wine
`muteANSIDeprecationWarning`	Toggle ANSI deprecation warning

Commands

Action	Syntax	Shortcut
Compile NSIS	`source.nsis`	Ctrl+Shift+B
Compile NSIS (strict)	`source.nsis`	Ctrl+Alt+Shift+B
Create Build Task	`source.nsis`	–
Command Reference	`source.nsis`	–
Show Version	`source.nsis`	–
Show Compiler Flags	`source.nsis`	–
Open Settings	`source.nsis`	–
Convert Language File	`source.nlf`	-

Task Runner

If you prefer Visual Studio Code's built-in Task Runner to build scripts, you can create tasks.json in the project root using the NSIS: Create Build Task command from the command-palette.

Note: The created Task Runner will adapt to the user settings specified in settings.json.

Environment Variables

This extension supports a variety of ways to provide environment variables such as NSISDIR or NSISCONFDIR. The following precedence applies:

terminal.integrated.shell.* setting
.env files
system-wide environment variables

Note: Some operating systems require Visual Studio Code to be launched from terminal in order to access system-wide environment variables.

Additionally, you can pass special environment variables prefixed with NSIS_APP_ as definitions to your installer script.

Example

# .env
NSIS_APP_ENVIRONMENT=development

# installer.nsi
!if ${NSIS_APP_ENVIRONMENT} == "development"
  DetailPrint "Valuable Debug Information"
!endif

License

If not otherwise specified (see below), files in this repository fall under The MIT License and the GNU General Public License, version 2.0.

An exception is made for files in readable text which contain their own license information, or files where an accompanying file exists (in the same directory) with a “-license” suffix added to the base-name name of the original file, and an extension of txt, html, or similar. For example “tidy” is accompanied by “tidy-license.txt”.

NSIS

idleberg