site_archiver@lists.apple.com Delivered-To: darwin-dev@lists.apple.com One might think that such Install packages should have some way of verifying that the Installer running them supports all their requirements ... One might think that people should follow instructions and that Apple shouldn't have to worry about stopping people who ignore the directions from shooting themselves in the feet. -pmb _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Darwin-dev mailing list (Darwin-dev@lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/darwin-dev/site_archiver%40lists.appl... At 6:40 PM -0700 9/21/06, Daniel M. Zimmerman wrote: --On 21 September 2006 16.53.17 -0400 Finlay Dobbie <finlay.dobbie@gmail.com> wrote: While this is certainly true for the particular instance of this phenomenon that started the discussion here, it doesn't invalidate the general point... if, once a new Installer version comes out, a third party releases an Installer package that depends on new features of Installer, one really would think that it would be a good thing if old versions of Installer would refuse to install said package. That would defeat the ability to use deprecated features to replicate newer functionality on older releases. For example, packages created for 10.4 can make use of an XML distribution script, which replaces several older mechanisms for doing things like InstallChecks. If the author puts an InstallCheck script in one of these packages, 10.3 will see the InstallCheck script and ignore the .dist file. 10.4 will see the .dist file and ignore the InstallCheck. The installer almost always errs on the side of giving the package author as much flexibility as possible. In your example, it would be the responsibility of the 3rd party author to create packages that gave the user an appropriate error. So the OSInstall.mpkg _could_ be authored to strictly require the exact build of the Installer it shipped with, but doesn't, for reasons private to Apple's development process. It does, however, log an error in the install log if you try to install an OSInstall.mpkg using an OS build older than what's in the package. This email sent to site_archiver@lists.apple.com