Re: Any recommended resources for learning Mac packaging?
Re: Any recommended resources for learning Mac packaging?
- Subject: Re: Any recommended resources for learning Mac packaging?
- From: Paul Cook <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:34:33 -0500
I still consider myself new at this, so that may influence the utility
of my advice for you. Following are some of the resources that I found
helpful.
This list is certainly high on the list of useful resources.
Documents
While the Apple documentation could be better, I found it quite
helpful non-the-less. Look for and download the following pdf
documents: SoftwareDeliveryGuide.pdf, PackageMaker_UserGuide.pdf and
InstallerJavaScriptRef.pdf.
I found "Unix for Mac OS X Tiger" by Matisse Enzer, to be helpful in
learning basic shell scripting, which I did not know when I started.
While it is targeted at Tiger, not Leopard, I still found it quite
useful as, except for NetInfo, much of what I needed to know is basic
and unchanged.(Need to find a similarly good tutorial on Perl and
JavaScript.)
Much of my package making was focused on repackaging existing software
for distribution via NetInstall and Apple Remote Desktop. So that has
biased my answers.
Programs
I found loggen and fseventer to be immensely helpful for identifying
what got installed where. LogGen was great if you wanted to repackage
a big program or you needed to do it on Tiger or before. If you wanted
to find out what files got changed by a change to a system preference
or other small change, then fseventer was wonderful.
I also found the mac utility "secrets" to be helpful for figuring out
where some preferences might be stored.
For futzing around with otherwise hidden files and folders, it can be
handy to have a single click utility that makes them all visible. I
used a utility called "Hidden Way" but there are others.
I didn't want to break my normal Mac, so I elected to use a second
computer for package creation and testing. While a MacPro would have
been nice, my budget didn't allow for it. So I went with a MacMini.
For testing my packages, I found it handy to have a very large
internal disk that was partitioned into volumes just large enough for
package creation and testing, plus one partition to store my work-in-
progress. I would create a template partition with the OS, tools and
software that I wanted and would then clone it to other partitions.
You can do this with Disk Utilities' Restore functionality or a number
of third party utilities. (Carbon Copy Cloner, SuperDuper, etc)
Once you have done your testing, to restore a partition back to its
clean state, you can again use Disk Utility's Restore. But if you want
to save time, I found a copy of SuperDuper to be immensely useful. I
don't remember the exact terminology, but instead of having to erase
the partition and copy everything, you can undo just the changes. This
is an adaptation of SuperDuper's ability to do an incremental backup.
What you essentially do, is an incremental backup of your clean
template to the dirty test partition, erasing and replacing everything
on the test partition that is different.
I found Viou handy for making folder icons, where there were none, but
I thought there should be. (Although, I tweaked its default settings
to get something more to my liking.)
Your experience may vary, but with package making, I found it best to
have the permissions actually the way that I wanted them on the files,
as opposed to using PackageMaker to change them. I played with
batchmod, iRepair and sandbox to do this, but didn't find any of them
to be perfect and often found my self typing "chmod" commands at the
terminal.
I don't find the terminal the nicest place to read man pages, so I
used ManOpen and Man Viewer.
For editing shell scripts, you will want a good text editor. Personal
preferences certainly differ here. But I purchased BBEdit. It has a
free sibling by the name of TextWrangler.
Because, I was sometimes making packages to replicate system
configurations, I often found it handy to login as root. But I tested
everything as a normal user.
I hope that some of this is helpful to you or some other person new to
package making as I was and still am.
Best Wishes,
Paul
On Mar 9, 2009, at 12:09 PM, Taylor Armstrong wrote:
Just curious... I'm taking on a new role soon, and my packaging
responsibilities should increase. I've been creating basic packages
using InstallEase, PackageMaker, and Iceberg, but am curious if
there are any good resources for learning more advanced processes.
I'll probably have a small window to ask for training materials and
resources, but I've not seen much out there in the little bit that
I've looked.
thanks,
Taylor Armstrong
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