heat generated files are not able to find SourceDir directory

Question

I am running heat to generate a wxs file. The code are as follows.

I want to add all the files from dir.prompts to the wxs file in the installer. And I added this to be a part of the automated build process ( so that I cant modify the wxs file once it has been generated).

The wxs file is generated, and it looks something like the following. Hoewever, then Light complains it can not find where SourceDir\Valid.wav is. So I guess my question is, is SourceDir the directory that I am reading the files from, or some magic directory that i am not aware of? Many thanks.

 <Fragment>
    <ComponentGroup Id="COMPONENTS">
        <Component Id="dmp120F8C2794******" Directory="dir31A7EE61C56025FE2564A81E28E8C132" Guid="{6D40EBC0-***-***-B972-**********}">
            <File Id="fil919100C2******D045EC131" KeyPath="yes" Source="SourceDir\Valid.wav" />
        </Component>



<exec program ="${dir.wix}\heat.exe">
  <arg value = "dir"/>
  <arg line = "${dir.prompts}"/> 
  <arg value= "-gg"/>
  <arg line="-cg &quot;COMPONENTS&quot;"/>
  <arg line = "-out  &quot;${dir.thisinstaller}\\COMPONENTS.wxs&quot;"/> 
</exec>

Answer 1

You should add -var switch to heat command line:

From heat.exe help:

-var VariableName substitute File/@Source="SourceDir"

with a preprocessor or a wix variable. For example:

-var var.MySource

will become File/@Source="$(var.MySource)\myfile.txt"

and

-var wix.MySource

will become File/@Source="!(wix.MySource)\myfile.txt"

Answer 2

Note that light will search additional SourceDir's for your file if you add them to the search path with -b

e.g.

light.exe -b Foo ...

(Answer from: https://stackoverflow.com/a/6920979/640282 )