Creating .CAB files with Powershell

After struggling lot for creating a cab file, I thought of sharing information of how  got the cab file created. When packing the .cab files for release, Automating it makes things quick, easy and certainly less error prone.
Working with .cab files in Powershell requires use of MAKECAB.EXE which, fortunately, is distributed with each edition of Windows.
Creating a Powershell advanced function that would easily allow to package each culture-specific help file (or one or more files) into its own cabinet file. It would probably be more prudent to utilise .NET’s StringBuilder class but performance is not (currently) an issue or priority!

Syntax for creating a cab file

New-CabinetFile -Name MyCabinet.cab -File "File01.exe","File02.txt"

--This creates a new MyCabinet.cab file in the current directory and adds the File01.exe and File02.txt files to it, also from the current directory.

Syntax for extracting a cab file

Get-ChildItem C:\CabFile\ | New-CabinetFile -Name MyCabinet.cab -DestinationPath C:\Users\UserA\Documents

--This creates a new C:\Users\UserA\Documents\MyCabinet.cab file and adds all files within the C:\CabFile\ directory into it.

Code for the New-CabinetFile function:

function New-CabinetFile {

    [CmdletBinding()]

    Param(

        [Parameter(HelpMessage="Target .CAB file name.", Position=0, Mandatory=$true, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true)]

        [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]

        [Alias("FilePath")]

        [string] $Name,

        [Parameter(HelpMessage="File(s) to add to the .CAB.", Position=1, Mandatory=$true, ValueFromPipeline=$true)]

        [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]

        [Alias("FullName")]

        [string[]] $File,

        [Parameter(HelpMessage="Default intput/output path.", Position=2, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true)]

        [AllowNull()]

        [string[]] $DestinationPath,

        [Parameter(HelpMessage="Do not overwrite any existing .cab file.")]

        [Switch] $NoClobber

        )

    Begin { 

        ## If $DestinationPath is blank, use the current directory by default

        if ($DestinationPath -eq $null) { $DestinationPath = (Get-Location).Path; }

        Write-Verbose "New-CabinetFile using default path '$DestinationPath'.";

        Write-Verbose "Creating target cabinet file '$(Join-Path $DestinationPath $Name)'.";

        ## Test the -NoClobber switch

        if ($NoClobber) {

            ## If file already exists then throw a terminating error

            if (Test-Path -Path (Join-Path $DestinationPath $Name)) { throw "Output file '$(Join-Path $DestinationPath $Name)' already exists."; }

        }

        ## Cab files require a directive file, see 'http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb417343.aspx#dir_file_syntax' for more info

        $ddf = ";*** MakeCAB Directive file`r`n";

        $ddf += ";`r`n";

        $ddf += ".OPTION EXPLICIT`r`n";

        $ddf += ".Set CabinetNameTemplate=$Name`r`n";

        $ddf += ".Set DiskDirectory1=$DestinationPath`r`n";

        $ddf += ".Set MaxDiskSize=0`r`n";

        $ddf += ".Set Cabinet=on`r`n";

        $ddf += ".Set Compress=on`r`n";

        ## Redirect the auto-generated Setup.rpt and Setup.inf files to the temp directory

        $ddf += ".Set RptFileName=$(Join-Path $ENV:TEMP "setup.rpt")`r`n";

        $ddf += ".Set InfFileName=$(Join-Path $ENV:TEMP "setup.inf")`r`n";

        ## If -Verbose, echo the directive file

        if ($PSCmdlet.MyInvocation.BoundParameters["Verbose"].IsPresent) {

            foreach ($ddfLine in $ddf -split [Environment]::NewLine) {

                Write-Verbose $ddfLine;

            }

        }

    }

    Process {

         ## Enumerate all the files add to the cabinet directive file

        foreach ($fileToAdd in $File) {

            ## Test whether the file is valid as given and is not a directory

            if (Test-Path $fileToAdd -PathType Leaf) {

                Write-Verbose """$fileToAdd""";

                $ddf += """$fileToAdd""`r`n";

            }

            ## If not, try joining the $File with the (default) $DestinationPath

            elseif (Test-Path (Join-Path $DestinationPath $fileToAdd) -PathType Leaf) {

                Write-Verbose """$(Join-Path $DestinationPath $fileToAdd)""";

                $ddf += """$(Join-Path $DestinationPath $fileToAdd)""`r`n";

            }

            else { Write-Warning "File '$fileToAdd' is an invalid file or container object and has been ignored."; }

        }       

    }

    End {

        $ddfFile = Join-Path $DestinationPath "$Name.ddf";

        $ddf | Out-File $ddfFile -Encoding ascii | Out-Null;

        Write-Verbose "Launching 'MakeCab /f ""$ddfFile""'.";

        $makeCab = Invoke-Expression "MakeCab /F ""$ddfFile""";

        ## If Verbose, echo the MakeCab response/output

        if ($PSCmdlet.MyInvocation.BoundParameters["Verbose"].IsPresent) {

            ## Recreate the output as Verbose output

            foreach ($line in $makeCab -split [environment]::NewLine) {

                if ($line.Contains("ERROR:")) { throw $line; }

                else { Write-Verbose $line; }

            }

        }

        ## Delete the temporary .ddf file

        Write-Verbose "Deleting the directive file '$ddfFile'.";

        Remove-Item $ddfFile;

        ## Return the newly created .CAB FileInfo object to the pipeline

        Get-Item (Join-Path $DestinationPath $Name);

    }

}