• Open Menu Close Menu
  • Apple
  • Shopping Bag
  • Apple
  • Mac
  • iPad
  • iPhone
  • Watch
  • TV
  • Music
  • Support
  • Search apple.com
  • Shopping Bag

Lists

Open Menu Close Menu
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Lists hosted on this site
  • Email the Postmaster
  • Tips for posting to public mailing lists
Re: Cross platform installer
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Cross platform installer


  • Subject: Re: Cross platform installer
  • From: Gary Pederson <email@hidden>
  • Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2007 10:24:56 -0500

I'm not from Apple, but I've used this flag on 10.3 and 10.4. Here's what works for me:

DiskFolder
+---DataFolder
|	+---FolderToInstall
|		+---file1.data
|		+---file2.data
+---MyInstaller.pkg
    +---Contents
        +---Archive.bom
	|	.
	|	./FolderToInstall
	|	./FolderToInstall/file1.data
	|	./FolderToInstall/file2.data
	+---Info.plist
	|	<key>IFPkgFlagAltSourceLocation</key>
	|	<string>../DataFolder</string>
	|	<key>IFPkgFlagDefaultLocation</key>
        |	<string>/Full/Path/To/ParentOfFolderToInstall</string>
	+---PkgInfo
	+---Resources

NOTES:
This only seems to work with folders (containing files) but not with loose files themselves.
IFPkgFlagAltSourceLocation & IFPkgFlagDefaultLocation are the parent folders of the folder you are installing.
I've had some problems with 10.3.x and permissions of files installed from CD, so I fix them in a postflight.
Remember to delete MyInstaller.pkg/Contents/Archive.pax (or Archive.pax.gz).
You'll rarely build an installer only once and it's easy to make mistakes when doing this manually, so automate the build process.


Good Luck
- Gary


On Jun 20, 2007, at 3:40 PM, email@hidden wrote:

If this flag works, this would be extremely useful. Can anybody from Apple (or elsewhere...) say whether this flag is implemented, what OS versions it would work correctly in, and if there is any further enlightenment in the correct usage?

Thanks!

          - Rick


Stéphane Sudre wrote:
On mercredi, juin 20, 2007, at 06:55 PM, Steve Israelson wrote:
I am trying to determine if PackageMaker can create a package that can install my application and also its data files where the data files are not in the package but are on the install disk in an external directory. I want to do this so that the Windows installer can also access these data files.
The install is very simple, just the App, data files, and one defaults tweak to point at the data files.


I saw a couple of threads on this subject and there was no good solution other that to write your own shell script to copy the files.

My deployment target is 10.3.9 or later.

Has there been any other solutions found to this issue?
Maybe a solution could be to:
Use a Metapackage containing 2 packages:
Package A: it contains your application. Standard package, no magic involved.
Package B: it contains no .pax. It used the undocumented "IFPkgFlagAltSourceLocation" flag.
As I've never used the "IFPkgFlagAltSourceLocation", I can't confirm that it will work.
If not, then I may resort to writing my own installer since I will be in full control of the install process then. Are there any gotchas with making your own installer?
By gotchas, do you mean something like:
- bugs
- security flaws
- files being deleted
- not being able to blame someone else for the first 3 items on this list.
?
_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Installer-dev mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
40gmail.com This email sent to email@hidden
_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Installer-dev mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
40gmail.com


This email sent to email@hidden

_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Installer-dev mailing list      (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
This email sent to email@hidden


References: 
 >Re: Cross platform installer (From: Stéphane Sudre <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Cross platform installer (From: email@hidden)

  • Prev by Date: Re: Cross platform installer
  • Next by Date: "No package identifier specified" and make -C
  • Previous by thread: Re: Cross platform installer
  • Next by thread: Re: Cross platform installer
  • Index(es):
    • Date
    • Thread