Renaming breaks packed library in LV 2015

[crossrulz]

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@littlesphaeroid wrote:

Since a PPL is much like an executable

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A PPL is much closer related to a DLL in function than an executable.  And I understand your argument about renaming an executable, but the logical names inside of the executable are not tied to the exe's name.

So let's go with this corollary:  What happens if you renamed a library (lvlib) file outside of LabVIEW?  All of the VIs in the library will be broken because they are trying to point to a library that now does not exist.  The PPL is exactly the same as a lvlib except it contains compiled versions of the VIs.  It is the bidirectional validation of the library ownership that is causing the issue.

[littlesphaeroid]

Well, the problem faced is one of versioning. What would be a good way to version library files? A PPL can be updated. In the case of a plugin architecture, I need to ensure that the correct version of the library is in use across dozens of deployed testers. I've done this by appending a version number to the PPL filename. This worked great.

The process of scripting changes to build scripts is a bit of a pain and this seemingly arbitrary change is making me think that I'm not supposed to change the library names. Have I taken a wrong path?

[crossrulz]

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@littlesphaeroid wrote:

Well, the problem faced is one of versioning. What would be a good way to version library files? A PPL can be updated. In the case of a plugin architecture, I need to ensure that the correct version of the library is in use across dozens of deployed testers.

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Can VIPM take care of this?  I know NI has plans to do something similar with NI Package Manager and a system configuration software.  That is still years away though.

You could do an MD5 on your PPLs and verify it matches your latest version.

[littlesphaeroid]

I attempted a workaround to this problem, by renaming the target filename using a Pre-build script. However, this does not work. The target filename is changed, but the original target filename is used for the actual build. 

This appears to be inconsistent with the purpose of the pre-build script. 

I'm beginning to get very frustrated with the PPL build changes instituted since LV 2015!

I have started a new thread for this issue:

https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/pre-build-action-to-change-target-file-name-doesn-t-work/m-p/371660...