heat throws ArgumentNullException

[wixbot]

Obviously a minor issue, but if bad command line arguments (I'd forgotten to specify "file" before the filename) are passed to heat (RC2/3.0.5217.0), then it throws System.ArgumentNullException

E:\trunk\Software\bin\Release.Win32>"c:\Program Files\Windows Installer XML v3\bin\heat.exe" CADEV060.OCX -out z.z
Microsoft (R) Windows Installer Xml Toolset Harvester version 3.0.5217.0
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

heat.exe : error HEAT0001 : Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: argument

Exception Type: System.ArgumentNullException

Stack Trace:
at Microsoft.Tools.WindowsInstallerXml.Harvester.Harvest(String argument)
at Microsoft.Tools.WindowsInstallerXml.Tools.Heat.Run(String[] args)

Originally opened by john-aldridge from http://sourceforge.net/p/wix/bugs/1745/

[wixbot]

Indeed. We moved this to 4.0 as there will be a lot of work around command line and overall functionality. I put the example in place for others 'glancing' at the bug for support.

The command line handling is poor and something that needs to be revamped. It would definitely be a breaking change to v3.5.

[wixbot]

Yes indeed... that's what I said. This bug report is just noting that crashing is a rather ungraceful way to report invalid command line arguments!

[wixbot]

heat.exe CADEV060.OCX -out z.z

try

heat.exe file CADEV060.OCX -out z.z

[wixbot]

verify

Originally posted by barnson
Area changed from heat to
Releasechanged fromfuturetov3.x

[wixbot]

Originally changed by bmurri
AssignedTo set to wixsupport

[wixbot]

In 3.10 and 4.0, heat issues an erroneous error message ("heat.exe : error HEAT0319 : The '-out' or '-o' parameter must specify a file path.") even with z.z replaced with a valid .wxs filename or even a complete path.

At least it no longer crashes, but it still doesn't present a correct error message.

Originally posted by bmurri
Status changed from Open to Untriaged