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Niobium
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Install silently

Every operation the installer window offers is also a command. With --silent and --json, setup runs without interaction, prints machine-readable events on standard output, and reports the outcome through its exit code.

Install

Section titled “Install”
Terminal window
setup install --silent --json --scope user
  • --scope user|machine chooses the install location; without it the product’s default scope is used. Machine scope needs administrator rights.
  • --components runtime,docs lists the optional components to install instead of the ones marked default; required components are always installed. A listed or required component with no artifact for this platform fails with exit code 13.
  • --install-dir <dir> installs somewhere other than the scope’s default root.
  • --channel stable|beta|nightly overrides the channel compiled into setup.
  • --repo <url|dir> overrides where releases come from; an offline bundle’s repository/ is used automatically.

On Windows the executable is setup.exe; the options are the same.

Read the result

Section titled “Read the result”

Decide success by the exit code: 0 is success, and every other value has one meaning listed in exit codes. Codes worth handling in automation:

Code Meaning Typical action
0 Success, including “already up to date” none
7 Not enough rights, or the elevation prompt was cancelled rerun elevated
8 Installed, but the application’s App Bootstrap failed the version is in place; check the application
10 Another transaction for this product is running retry later
12 Not installed (for update, repair, uninstall) run install instead

With --json, standard output carries one JSON object per line:

{"schema":1,"phase":"download","progress":0.998}
{"schema":1,"phase":"complete"}

A failure produces one error event with a stable code such as trust.hash_mismatch and the exit_code. The fields are described in events. Human-readable messages go to standard error; --silent limits them to errors.

Check, update, repair, uninstall

Section titled “Check, update, repair, uninstall”
Terminal window
setup status --json      # one JSON object, or exit code 12 when not installed
setup update --silent --json
setup repair --silent --json
setup uninstall --silent --json

update, repair and uninstall keep the scope of the existing installation. They look for it only in each scope’s default root; for a product installed with --install-dir, pass the same --install-dir again. uninstall needs no repository.

An installation also contains its own copy of setup under maintainer/ in the install root, which deployment tools can call for later updates and removal.

Status of machine scope

Section titled “Status of machine scope”

Silent machine-scope installs have not been verified on real Windows or Linux systems yet (N1-UJ-02 on Status and platforms). Verify them on your target systems before relying on them.