Trying today to add a solution (WSP) to the farm, I get an error from STSADM saying;

The file manifest.xml does not exist in the solution package.

I’m pretty sure the manifest.xml file was included in the package when it was built, so I rename the WSP as a .CAB file and open it with WinZip, sure enough it’s there in the right place.

Not having looked at the MAKECAB documentation at allmuch 🙂 I start looking at the cabinet variables I’m setting in my solutions .DDF file.

A typical solution .DDF file looks something like this;

; ** My Solution Name **
.OPTION EXPLICIT ; Generate errors
.Set CabinetNameTemplate=mysolutionpackage.wsp
.set DiskDirectoryTemplate=CDROM
.Set CompressionType=MSZIP
.Set UniqueFiles="ON"
.Set Cabinet=on
.Set DiskDirectory1=Package

; …….
…

It dawns on me after a while what MAKECAB actually is – and that is to package files or a file across deployment media – when I start looking at the options for controlling the maximum size of cabinet files and the maximum size of target deployment media;

MaxCabinetSize=size

Set the maximum size for the current cabinet.

MaxDiskSize[n]=size

Set the maximum default size for a disk.

Default: .Set MaxDiskSize=1.44M ; Default is 1.44M floppy

The WSP file I’m trying to deploy is over 1.5Mb, and so setting the MaxDiskSize and MaxCabinetSize options to zero resolved the problem.