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Auto-selecting components based on external command exit code on 10.6.6
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Auto-selecting components based on external command exit code on 10.6.6

  • Subject: Auto-selecting components based on external command exit code on 10.6.6
  • From: Andrew Keller <email@hidden>
  • Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2015 17:09:10 -0400
Hi all,

My installer package needs to choose specific behavior (one of two behaviors, mutually exclusive) based on system characteristics.  Previously, that logic was performed by an Installer _javascript_ function invoked by a <choice> element, like this:

<choice id=“com.company.reboot" enabled="false" selected=“!isHotInstallSafe()” … > … </choice>
<choice id=“com.company.hotActivate" enabled="false" selected=“isHotInstallSafe()” … > … </choice>
<script>
<![CDATA[
function isHotInstallSafe() {
if (!my.target) {
// Not sure what’s going on here, but this is needed
system.log(“isHotInstallSafe(): my.target is null”);
return false;
}
if (lots of logic) {
return true;
}
return false;
}
]]>
</script>

Recently, however, the logic that makes that decision is getting complicated enough that I want to use a formal program (more sane language, unit tests, the usual).  My installer already uses other tools to do its work, so the user already has to agree to running external programs when the installer opens.

The new installer is much the same as the old one, except that the _javascript_ function now looks like this:

function isHotInstallSafe() {
if (!my.target) {
// Not sure what’s going on here, but this is needed
system.log(“isHotInstallSafe(): my.target is null”);
return false;
}
return system.runOnce(“isHotInstallSafe”, “--use-exit-code”, my.target.mountpoint);
}

I like this much better.  It’s cleaner, and much easier to test.  However, it doesn’t seem to work on Mac OS 10.6.6.  I haven’t had a problem with 10.7 and later, but on 10.6.x, I get this output:

Mar 16 15:53:47 devnet Installer[514]: JS: Checking for reboot requirement: /Volumes/Snow Leopard Installer
Mar 16 15:53:47 devnet Installer[514]: IFJS: Error while running task (null) *** -[NSCFDictionary setObject:forKey:]: attempt to insert nil value (key: _NSTaskExecutablePath)
Mar 16 15:53:47 devnet Installer[514]: JS: > Tool returned with unexpected exit code: -1
Mar 16 15:53:47 devnet Installer[514]: JS: Checking for reboot requirement: /Volumes/Snow Leopard Installer
Mar 16 15:53:47 devnet Installer[514]: JS: > Tool returned with unexpected exit code: -1
Mar 16 15:53:47 devnet Installer[514]: JS: Checking for reboot requirement: /Volumes/Snow Leopard Installer
Mar 16 15:53:47 devnet Installer[514]: JS: > Tool returned with unexpected exit code: -1
Mar 16 15:53:47 devnet Installer[514]: JS: Checking for reboot requirement: /Volumes/Leopard Installer
Mar 16 15:53:47 devnet Installer[514]: IFJS: Error while running task (null) *** -[NSCFDictionary setObject:forKey:]: attempt to insert nil value (key: _NSTaskExecutablePath)
Mar 16 15:53:47 devnet Installer[514]: JS: > Tool returned with unexpected exit code: -1
Mar 16 15:53:47 devnet Installer[514]: JS: Checking for reboot requirement: /Volumes/Leopard Installer
Mar 16 15:53:47 devnet Installer[514]: JS: > Tool returned with unexpected exit code: -1
Mar 16 15:53:47 devnet Installer[514]: JS: Checking for reboot requirement: /Volumes/Leopard Installer
Mar 16 15:53:47 devnet Installer[514]: JS: > Tool returned with unexpected exit code: -1
Mar 16 15:53:48 devnet Installer[514]: JS: Checking for reboot requirement: /Volumes/Data
Mar 16 15:53:48 devnet Installer[514]: IFJS: Error while running task (null) *** -[NSCFDictionary setObject:forKey:]: attempt to insert nil value (key: _NSTaskExecutablePath)
Mar 16 15:53:48 devnet Installer[514]: JS: > Tool returned with unexpected exit code: -1
Mar 16 15:53:48 devnet Installer[514]: JS: Checking for reboot requirement: /Volumes/Data
Mar 16 15:53:48 devnet Installer[514]: JS: > Tool returned with unexpected exit code: -1
Mar 16 15:53:48 devnet Installer[514]: JS: Checking for reboot requirement: /Volumes/Data
Mar 16 15:53:48 devnet Installer[514]: JS: > Tool returned with unexpected exit code: -1
Mar 16 15:53:48 devnet Installer[514]: JS: Checking for reboot requirement: /
Mar 16 15:53:48 devnet Installer[514]: IFJS: Error while running task (null) *** -[NSCFDictionary setObject:forKey:]: attempt to insert nil value (key: _NSTaskExecutablePath)
Mar 16 15:53:48 devnet Installer[514]: JS: > Tool returned with unexpected exit code: -1
Mar 16 15:53:48 devnet Installer[514]: JS: Checking for reboot requirement: /
Mar 16 15:53:48 devnet Installer[514]: JS: > Tool returned with unexpected exit code: -1
Mar 16 15:53:48 devnet Installer[514]: JS: Checking for reboot requirement: /
Mar 16 15:53:48 devnet Installer[514]: JS: > Tool returned with unexpected exit code: -1
Mar 16 15:53:48 devnet Installer[514]: JS: Checking for reboot requirement: /Volumes/Andrew 10.6.0-10A432 Clean
Mar 16 15:53:48 devnet Installer[514]: IFJS: Error while running task (null) *** -[NSCFDictionary setObject:forKey:]: attempt to insert nil value (key: _NSTaskExecutablePath)
Mar 16 15:53:48 devnet Installer[514]: JS: > Tool returned with unexpected exit code: -1
Mar 16 15:53:48 devnet Installer[514]: JS: Checking for reboot requirement: /Volumes/Andrew 10.6.0-10A432 Clean
Mar 16 15:53:48 devnet Installer[514]: JS: > Tool returned with unexpected exit code: -1
Mar 16 15:53:48 devnet Installer[514]: JS: Checking for reboot requirement: /Volumes/Andrew 10.6.0-10A432 Clean
Mar 16 15:53:48 devnet Installer[514]: JS: > Tool returned with unexpected exit code: -1

(That was a huge log file; I trimmed it down to what I think is relevant.)

When the installer runs, neither com.company.reboot nor com.company.hotActivate are selected, and neither of them are ran.  As you can probably guess from the volume names, this is one of my test computers.  It occurred to me that an unusual volume may be causing this, but the pattern in the error seems too suspicious.  Like the documentation for system.runOnce suggests, it looks like my tool is being called once for every unique set of arguments, and the first time it’s called, it blows up.

Other observations:

  •  Not sure where the -1 is coming from.  My tool only exits with status 0, 1, and 2.
  •  Commenting out the system.runOnce line avoids the error.
  •  I’m already using an external tool to do the heavy lifting in my volume check script, and it works just fine on all platforms.  What’s different about using system.runOnce in a function called by a <choice> element?

So, what’s going on here?

Thanks,
 - Andrew Keller

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