Apple

On Sep 4, 2013, at 8:52 AM, James Pritchard <email@hidden> wrote:

Good question. Each user can do what they want with the samples but maybe they could be placed in /Library/Foo. If a user changes a file they will then have two copies of the same file, the one in /Library/Foo and also the one in ~/Library/Foo. Does this not get confusing?

On 04/09/2013 16:44, Conor Schutzman wrote:
The real question is why these samples need to be user specific. Well written apps should look in both ~/Library/Foo, and /Library/Foo.

On Sep 4, 2013, at 8:37 AM, James Pritchard <email@hidden> wrote:
The files only get copied to the home folder of the user who is installing the samples. I certainly didn't want every user to get the samples but I will double check that that is not happening. Thanks for the heads up on that.

On 04/09/2013 16:24, Greg Neagle wrote:
And in the "multiple user accounts on one machine" scenario, I _don't_ think the right approach is to just copy your files to every single home folder found on the machine. That makes the assumption that every user on the machine _wants_ to use your software.

As suggested by others, a better approach is to install the data files somewhere globally readable; if read/write copies are needed, copy them/create them in the user's home on first launch of your software if they are missing.

This approach covers all the scenarios.

-Greg
On Sep 4, 2013, at 8:17 AM, Steve Stockman <email@hidden> wrote:
Greg gave some examples of why the installer might not find a user's home directory, such as network users or the possibility of a machine being pre-configured. To that I would add

1. Users whose accounts are created on the machine after the software was installed (really a superset of the preconfiguration scenario).

2. In earlier Mac OS X versions, if a FileVaulted user is not currently logged in, his entire home directory consists of a single encrypted disk image.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Steve Stockman
Software Architect/Technical Director
Consumer Products - Macintosh
Symantec Corporation
www.symantec.com
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From: James Pritchard <email@hidden>
Date: Wednesday, September 4, 2013 10:08 AM
To: installer-Dev mailing-list <email@hidden>
Subject: Fwd: Re: Installing to users Home folder using Packages

-------- Original Message --------

Subject: Re: Installing to users Home folder using Packages

Date: Wed, 04 Sep 2013 16:08:18 +0100

From: James Pritchard <email@hidden>

To: Steve Stockman <email@hidden>

On 04/09/2013 15:48, Steve Stockman wrote: > I don't think software versus data is Greg's point here. The point is that > your software requires certain files to exist within a user's home > directory, which might be unavailable or even non-existent at install time. The software doesn't require the samples. If anything the samples require the software and I think we did have a check in PackageMaker for this so I will look into whether this is possible with Packages. > > If the files are never to be modified after installation, rather than have > them in a home directory, just keep them within the application bundle > itself or somewhere within "/Library/Application Support". The files can be modified. > If you are installing initial/default forms of files that may be modified > as the software runs, the normal way to accomplish this is: > 1. Install the initial or default form of the data in a known location, > such as within your application bundle or somewhere within > "/Library/Application Support". If we are talking about multiple files, it > would probably be handy to install a single tar or zip archive. > 2. When your app or agent launches, it checks the current user's home > directory for the presence of those files, and copies them there if they > do not already exist. This can either be done immediately at startup, or > lazily as the files are actually needed. This is something we've done in the past with our Windows software but have moved away from as a solution. > Those steps accomplish two things: > 1. It provides for users whose home directories would not be found by the > installer. Is it common for the users home directory not to be found by the installer? Would my postflight script I previously employed suffer similar problems and how would the application find it when the installer and the script can't? > > 2. It prevents a subsequent version of your installer from overwriting > files that have already been modified within a home directory without > having to go through any complex version checking. I think I made sure my postflight script did not overwrite modified files but I will certainly check that the installer is not doing this and if it is then this is potentially not an option. Steve Stockman Software Architect/Technical Director Consumer Products - Macintosh Symantec Corporation www.symantec.com <http://www.symantec.com/> -----Original Message----- From: James Pritchard <email@hidden> Date: Wednesday, September 4, 2013 9:28 AM To: Greg Neagle <email@hidden> Cc: "email@hidden" <email@hidden> Subject: Re: Installing to users Home folder using Packages >> It's not software we install to the users home folder but additional >> sample files. >> >> On 04/09/2013 15:21, Greg Neagle wrote: >>> Why do you need to do this? >>> >>> I would not want to use/support your software in an enterprise >>> environment where: >>> >>> 1) There may be multiple user accounts on a machine >>> 2) User accounts might come from a directory service and therefore have >>> no "footprint" on a machine when your software is installed. >>> 3) The user installing your software might be a site administrator, and >>> not the user who will be using your software. >>> 4) The software might be installed by an automated process and there >>> might be no user logged in at all at the time of install. >>> 5) A machine might be set up and configured _before_ the main user's >>> account is created; the main user's account may not even exist at the >>> time of the installation of your software. >>> >>> Software should not _require_ the installation of anything in a user's >>> home directory. >>> >>> -Greg >>> >>> On Sep 4, 2013, at 3:32 AM, James Pritchard <email@hidden> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> Up until now we've been using PackageMaker to put together our >>>> installs but looking to make a change to use Packages for our next >>>> software release. >>>> >>>> An issue we had using PackageMaker was with installing to the users >>>> Home folder. Our solution was to install to the /tmp folder and then >>>> copy the files across in a post flight script. Can anyone tell me if >>>> there a way of installing to the Home folder in Packages, or should I >>>> just carry on using my existing post flight script. >>>> >>>> Thanks, >>>> James >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. >>>> Installer-dev mailing list (email@hidden) >>>> Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: >>>> >>>> eyanimation.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: >> antec.com >> >> This email sent to email@hidden
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