Apple

On Jan 2, 2009, at 6:28 AM, Glover,David wrote:

I have a question regarding preventing a distribution package from installing on Panther… As Panther ignores .dist files and the install/volume checks within it, and as .mpkgs cannot have their own install and volume check scripts, how can a distribution package me made to fail at runtime on Panther?

Mpkgs, in their Contents/Info.plist have a IFPkgFlagPackageList, which can contain a "required" package. The InstallationCheck and VolumeCheck files in that package can fail the installation on Panther.

So for iLife '08.mpkg, which won't run on Panther, I have this in the Info.plist:

<key>IFPkgFlagPackageList</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>IFPkgFlagPackageLocation</key>
<string>iLife '08.pkg</string>
<key>IFPkgFlagPackageSelection</key>
<string>required</string>
</dict>
</array>

iLife '08.pkg/Contents/Resources/InstallationCheck just returns an error code. Tiger and later, since there's a distribution file, the entire InstallationCheck/VolumeCheck regime gets ignored. You can do Panther/Tiger hybrids with Panther-only and Tiger-only packages by being creative in this way.

Oh, and this will help, too:

<key>IFPkgFlagComponentDirectory</key>
<string>./Contents/Installers/</string>

(tell it where to find the subpackages -- they don't have to be inside. If I recall correctly, prior to Panther, putting the packages inside the mpkg was a bad idea.)

References:
	>Distribution packages and Panther (From: "Glover,David" <email@hidden>)