Update to WIX v6.0.2 from WIX v5.0.2 causes wrong string interpolation

[OliverOkn]

Question

Hey,
I recently upgraded my WiX installer project from WiX v5.0.2 to WiX v6.0.2. The only changes I made were updating the NuGet packages and the project version numbers. After the upgrade, the installer, which previously worked without issues on WiX v5, started throwing warnings and no longer functions correctly.
The primary problem appears to be related to a shared file, Define.wxs, which I include in other .wxs files. This file contains variable definitions, such as relative paths. Under WiX v6, these variables are no longer being evaluated correctly, whereas they worked as expected in WiX v5.

code example:
Define.wxs

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Include>
  <?define ExamplesPath="..\..\InstallData\Examples\" ?>
</Include>

Examples.wxs

<Wix xmlns="http://wixtoolset.org/schemas/v4/wxs">
  <?ifndef $(var.MainProductName) ?>
  <?include Define.wxs ?>
  <?endif?>
  <Fragment>
    <ComponentGroup Id ="Examples" Directory="ExamplesDir">
      <Files Include="$(var.ExamplesPath)\**" />
    </ComponentGroup>
  </Fragment>
</Wix>

Both files are within the folder: "D:_DEV\Git\repo\InstallApp\Installer"

In WIX v5 this resulted in the correct absolute path:
"D:_DEV\Git\repo\InstallData\Examples"
In WIX v6 this results in the incorrect absolute path:
"D:_DEV\Git\repo\InstallApp\AdjustPaths\bin\InstallData\Examples"

and causes the following warning:

Warning WIX8601: Missing directory for harvesting files: A part of the path "D:_DEV\Git\repo\InstallApp\AdjustPaths\bin\InstallData\Examples" could not be found.

I don't know if it is also relevant but the first part of the incorrect path is the bin folder of a WIX Custom Action project, which is also part of my installer solution.

Downgrading to WIX v5 also immediately fixes the error.

Open Source Maintenance Fee

• I (or an organization I'm a member of) pay the Open Source Maintenance Fee by sponsoring the wixtoolset project because I support the maintainers.

[barnson]

#9097

[OliverOkn]

Thank you for the quick reply.