PackageMaker snafu
PackageMaker snafu
- Subject: PackageMaker snafu
- From: Rich Morin <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2011 20:04:27 -0700
I'm using Apple's PackageMaker (3.0.3, on Leopard) to
create an installer. Basically, it needs to put some
files into $HOME/Library/SketchUp and then copy a file
up into SketchUp's plugins directory. No problem, eh?
The last time I did this, I spent a couple of weeks in
research and hack mode: look for documentation, try to
get things to work as described, rinse, repeat.
Eventually, I had an installer that worked as desired.
Because of the hassle and pain, I ignored some minor
issues, such as the location of installed file trees.
Specifically, although I set the Destination to "/" in
PackageMaker, the files were installed relative to the
user's home directory. This seemed odd, but I was happy
enough to get it working that I shrugged and went on.
Fast forward to the present. I built another installer
and tried it out on a Lion system. Hmmmm; Lion installs
files relative to "/". So, I fudged the file tree to go
into /tmp/SketchUp and did a copy to $HOME/Library from
there. But wait; what am I supposed to do about Leopard?
One option is to create a (/-relative) installer for Lion
and another ($HOME-relative) one for Leopard. Then check
to see how Snow Leopard behaves and document accordingly.
This seems a bit awkward and error-prone. If the user
isn't careful in downloading, things will break. Yes, I
can check for this and display a nastygram, but...
Another option is to build things for Lion and fudge the
post-install script for Leopard. If the installer put
the file tree in $HOME/tmp/..., I simply copy from there.
Of course, if the user already had a $HOME/tmp directory,
things might get a bit wonky...
I tried installing Xcode 4 on my Lion system, in the hope
that it would have a new, improved version of PackageMaker.
No luck there. Some Googling indicated that, in 2008, the
PackageMaker distribution had been moved into the iOS SDK.
Not sure whether I want to spend the money and hassle to
find out whether this is (still) the case. Anyone know?
More to the point, what's the best way to proceed at this
point? This is beginning to look like a tarpit...
-r
--
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm Rich Morin
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/resume email@hidden
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/weblog +1 650-873-7841
Software system design, development, and documentation
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