MSIX Packaging Tool log file "PUB" warnings - what are they and should I be concerned?

[Tim Mangan]

The log file generated by the packaging tool sometimes contains warning lines, like:

[12/27/2018 10:31:41 AM] [Warning] W_COM_PUBFAIL_INPROC_SERVER_NOT_SUPPORTED
[12/27/2018 10:31:41 AM] [Warning] W_COM_PUBFAIL_INVALID_SUBKEY
[12/27/2018 10:31:41 AM] [Warning] W_COM_PUBFAIL_INVALID_SUBKEY
[12/27/2018 10:31:41 AM] [Warning] W_COM_PUBFAIL_CYCLE
[12/27/2018 10:31:41 AM] [Warning] W_COM_PUBFAIL_INVALID_SUBKEY
[12/27/2018 10:31:41 AM] [Warning] W_COM_PUBFAIL_INVALID_DEPENDENCY
[12/27/2018 10:31:41 AM] [Warning] W_COM_PUBFAIL_INVALID_SUBKEY
[12/27/2018 10:31:41 AM] [Warning] W_COM_PUBFAIL_INVALID_DEPENDENCY
[12/27/2018 10:31:41 AM] [Warning] W_COM_PUBFAIL_INVALID_SUBKEY
[12/27/2018 10:31:41 AM] [Warning] W_COM_PUBFAIL_INVALID_DEPENDENCY
[12/27/2018 10:31:41 AM] [Warning] W_COM_PUBFAIL_INVALID_SUBKEY
[12/27/2018 10:31:41 AM] [Warning] W_COM_PUBFAIL_INVALID_DEPENDENCY
[12/27/2018 10:31:41 AM] [Warning] W_COM_PUBFAIL_INVALID_SUBKEY
[12/27/2018 10:31:41 AM] [Warning] W_COM_PUBFAIL_INVALID_DEPENDENCY
[12/27/2018 10:31:41 AM] [Warning] W_COM_PUBFAIL_INVALID_SUBKEY
[12/27/2018 10:31:41 AM] [Warning] W_COM_PUBFAIL_INVALID_DEPENDENCY
[12/27/2018 10:31:41 AM] [Warning] W_COM_PUBFAIL_INVALID_SUBKEY
[12/27/2018 10:31:41 AM] [Warning] W_COM_PUBFAIL_INVALID_DEPENDENCY
[12/27/2018 10:31:41 AM] [Warning] W_COM_PUBFAIL_INVALID_SUBKEY

What are they, and are they a concern?  Is the concern temporary and will be resolved by adding features in the future?  And if so, would one have to repackage (i.e. the feature is in the packaging tool) or just deploy on a future os version?

[#2]

Hi Tim,

Thanks for pointing this out.  These are internal warning messages that we overlooked updating to user understandable strings.

In general, these indicate various states we have detected in the apps COM registrations that are malformed or have no analog in MSIX today. If your converted app works as expected, likely these were superfluous COM entries.  However, if you are seeing missing functionality, particularly around COM behavior, these may be important to you.

For the warnings that indicate not yet implemented features, the easiest path forward would be to reconvert on a version of the tool that supports those COM features. Depending on how prevalent certain problems end up being, we might consider adding a 're-parse your COM state' option to package editor or the like to minimize user difficulty.

I'm updating these warnings to be user understandable in the meantime.  You should see that in an upcoming version.

Thanks!
James