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Re: softwareupdate downloads package format?
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Re: softwareupdate downloads package format?


  • Subject: Re: softwareupdate downloads package format?
  • From: Iceberg-Dev <email@hidden>
  • Date: Fri, 29 May 2009 23:29:01 +0200


On May 29, 2009, at 6:07 PM, Greg Neagle wrote:

/usr/sbin/softwareupdate has a --download option, which can be used to download available updates to the current user's Downloads folder. But there's an oddity: some downloaded updates appear not as .pkg or .mpkg files or bundles, but rather as simple directories. These directories have this format:

Update Name/
	Packages/
		Package1.pkg/
		Package2.pkg/
		UpdateName-1.0.0.dist
	Update Name.dist -> Packages/UpdateName-1.0.0.dist

If you point installer at the .dist file inside the Packages directory, some of these downloads will install; others will fail saying the required resources cannot be found.

Since this looks a bit like the distribution-style metapackage format, minus the top-level directory, I tried moving the files around like so:

Update Name.mpkg/
	Contents/
		Packages/
			Package1.pkg/
			Package2.pkg/
			UpdateName-1.0.0.dist
		Update Name.dist -> Packages/UpdateName-1.0.0.dist

Now installer seems to recognize it, but still can't install it.

Has anyone found a way to reliably install these downloaded updates? If there's no way to do so, what's the point of offering the option to download the updates, if you can't do anything useful with them afterwards?

For some examples, the recent Server Admin Tools 10.5.7 update downloads as one of these directories. It can be installed by pointing the installer at the inner-most .dist file.
An older update, Pro Applications Update 2008-05, also downloads as a folder with a similar structure, but can't be installed:

It is possible that a distribution used for softwareupdate installs nothing when used with Installer.app as there can be 3 choice hierarchies as defined in the Distribution Definition Reference. If the distribution has no 'Installer' or default hierarchy, then it would not install anything AFAIK.


My $0.02


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References: 
 >softwareupdate downloads package format? (From: Greg Neagle <email@hidden>)

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