ANN: Pacifist 1.0 Beta 1 Released
ANN: Pacifist 1.0 Beta 1 Released
- Subject: ANN: Pacifist 1.0 Beta 1 Released
- From: Charles Srstka <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 2 Dec 2001 19:47:29 -0600
After much deliberation, I have decided to release Pacifist as Beta 1.
Pacifist is an application which allows you to extract individual files
out of .pkg installer packages, similar to the way the old TomeViewer
let you open Tome files under OS 9.
You can download Pacifist from here:
http://homepage.mac.com/csrstka/Pacifist.dmg
Here is a list of Pacifist's current features:
- Lets you install individual items or folders from .pkg packages,
either to their default install location or to a custom location you
specify.
- Follows all symlinks properly, instead of overwriting them like
Installer.app does
- Doesn't mess with existing folders, including their permissions
- Correctly gives the sizes of a package, both compressed and
uncompressed, instead of always saying 100 MB like Installer.app does
- Displays total size of currently selected files, letting you know
exactly how much space your installation will take on your hard disk.
Dynamically updates this size as the selection changes.
- Automatically converts AppleDouble files into resource forks and
metadata when installing on HFS+ disks (leaves the files alone if
installing on UFS)
- Automatically updates prebinding information after installation to
optimize system performance
- Multiple document interface
- Multi-threaded
- Has a working search feature
- Fixes a few of Apple's omissions in NSOutlineView, so command-left
arrow and command-right arrow to collapse and expand items work, as does
auto filename completion
- Works with compressed or uncompressed packages
- By default, p1rompts before replacing any files
- Uses the Security Framework if the files will need to be installed as
root
- If you install a folder and the folder already exists, Pacifist
installs the folder's contents and doesn't overwrite the parent folder.
The exception is .app bundles, which by default will ask you what to do.
- The buffer used when piping to pax is configurable, unlike
command-line gzip, so you can tweak it to get faster decompression with
gz-compressed packages
- Most features can be turned off via preferences if you wish