August 2006 - Installer-dev

Parsing the output of the "installer" tool
by Steven Lobo 29 Aug '06

29 Aug '06

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com Thread-index: AcbLKB/XXnHRcDcbEduuZgANk6659g== Thread-topic: Parsing the output of the "installer" tool User-agent: Microsoft-Entourage/11.2.4.060510 Hi: I provide a software update feature in my software UI that currently checks for updates from a server, downloads updates if necessary and installs the same. My update software is packaged as a Packagemaker package/metapackage. Once the package is downloaded, I execute the package using the command line "installer" tool from my software UI (via NSTask) similar to this.... installer -pkg /My_Package_Source_Path -target My_Package_Destination_Path -verboseR The install status output that I receive is as follows installer: Package name is My Great App installer: Upgrading at base path / installer:PHASE:Preparing for installation installer:PHASE:Preparing the Disk installer:STATUS:Preparing Target Volume installer:%0.010000 installer:PHASE:Preparing My Great App installer:STATUS: installer:PHASE:Installing My Great App installer:STATUS: installer:STATUS:Configuring Installation installer:STATUS:Validating package installer:STATUS:Writing files installer:%0.295857 installer:STATUS:Writing package receipt installer:%0.884000 installer:PHASE:Finishing Installation installer:%0.002000 installer:STATUS:Finishing Installation installer:%1.000000 installer:STATUS: installer:PHASE:The software was successfully installed installer: The upgrade was successful. I plan to asynchronously monitor this output using the NSFileHandle API's, parse out the "STATUS:", "PHASE:" and "%" values and accordingly update a progress bar in my updater UI. This works out pretty well since most of the output is also localized already by the command line tool. Queries: -------- 1. Is parsing out the "installer" tool's output a recommended approach or is there a more reliable approach to handle this ? I could not find specific documentation regarding the output and am therefore unsure if such installer state parsing is recommended or and will be supported in future OS releases? 2. The install percentage value just before installation is finished is always "0.002000" (check above). Since this is not in sync with the rest of the percentage status provided, I reckon that this indicates some other status. What does this signify ? TIA Steven ----------------------------------------------- Robosoft Technologies - Come home to Technology _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Installer-dev mailing list (Installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/installer-dev/site_archiver%40lists.… This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: distribution package question
by Peter Bierman 28 Aug '06

28 Aug '06

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com That is correct. -pmb _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Installer-dev mailing list (Installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/installer-dev/site_archiver%40lists.… At 7:13 PM -0400 8/28/06, Michael Wu wrote: I create a single package with a custom plugin. It work fine when I launch the package itself. When I create a distribution package which includes the single package, the custom plugin (pane) did not show. I have to include the custom plugin inside the distribution package in order to make my pane to show. Does the distribution package only launches the standard part of a single package and doe not launch the custom pane? This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: distribution package question
by Luke Bellandi 28 Aug '06

28 Aug '06

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com Hi Michael, On Aug 28, 2006, at 4:13 PM, Michael Wu wrote: - Luke Thanks in advance.. Michael Wu _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Installer-dev mailing list (Installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/installer-dev/luke%40apple.com _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Installer-dev mailing list (Installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/installer-dev/site_archiver%40lists.… I create a single package with a custom plugin. It work fine when I launch the package itself. When I create a distribution package which includes the single package, the custom plugin (pane) did not show. I have to include the custom plugin inside the distribution package in order to make my pane to show. Does the distribution package only launches the standard part of a single package and doe not launch the custom pane? The distribution shows only UI and plugins from its resources. It only extracts the payload(s) from its included package(s) -- it will *not* incorporate their UI/resources into the install experience. This email sent to luke(a)apple.com This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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distribution package question
by Michael Wu 28 Aug '06

28 Aug '06

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com Thanks in advance.. Michael Wu _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Installer-dev mailing list (Installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/installer-dev/site_archiver%40lists.… I create a single package with a custom plugin. It work fine when I launch the package itself. When I create a distribution package which includes the single package, the custom plugin (pane) did not show. I have to include the custom plugin inside the distribution package in order to make my pane to show. Does the distribution package only launches the standard part of a single package and doe not launch the custom pane? This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: How to send data to the driver while installation?
by Rick Sustek 28 Aug '06

28 Aug '06

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com Have fun, -Rick _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Installer-dev mailing list (Installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/installer-dev/site_archiver%40lists.… I've also seen this sort of thing handled by the creation of a System Preferences Pane. This allows a user the ability to adjust driver settings readily, without having to re-install the driver. You can then simply your installer, and have it create a default number of virtual ports. This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: How to send data to the driver while installation?
by Luke Bellandi 28 Aug '06

28 Aug '06

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com Hi Vijay, - Luke On Aug 27, 2006, at 11:59 PM, Vijay wrote: Hi, We are developing Virtual Serial Ports driver software for a modem, since it has no serial ports.During installation of driver, user has to give the information of how many virtual serial ports needed to be installed by the driver. So we wanted to know how to give information to the driver of the number of ports to be installed during the installation of the software by the package maker. -- Regards, Vijay _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Installer-dev mailing list (Installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/installer-dev/luke%40apple.com _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Installer-dev mailing list (Installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/installer-dev/site_archiver%40lists.… Check out the InstallerPlugins.framework in /System/Library/Frameworks -- it allows you to create a custom executable (with UI) to insert into your install process. We are working to get a sample plugin posted for developers to work from. If you'd like a copy of that, email me off-list and I can provide you with the sample (it will take some time before it's posted.) This email sent to luke(a)apple.com This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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How to send data to the driver while installation?
by Vijay 28 Aug '06

28 Aug '06

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com Domainkey-signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition; b=J29lQ+r8YnJum+jRDLqMIU8X4oDD2Kb8id4/bUmx4FIM8WTL5cWtagvdHj9SPlvsu3pYOf/r/kNLhRmhzNOaudwSyz+ltJJqhp61abOCXtDwJpp7Wk8ySIoQxi5BsnrGDarIPr1KZczqTTKq4q+3wqmS/sRd2ZvvdGmuyDXmtRs= Hi, We are developing Virtual Serial Ports driver software for a modem, since it has no serial ports.During installation of driver, user has to give the information of how many virtual serial ports needed to be installed by the driver. So we wanted to know how to give information to the driver of the number of ports to be installed during the installation of the software by the package maker. -- Regards, Vijay _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Installer-dev mailing list (Installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/installer-dev/site_archiver%40lists.… This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Configuring default keyboard shortcuts
by Matt Weiss 24 Aug '06

24 Aug '06

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com Thread-index: AcbHvYUu012oplNXRfaWb9RBcT9shA== Thread-topic: Configuring default keyboard shortcuts Hey All, I'm trying to figure out how I can set up keyboard shortcuts through a script. I'm running Mac OSX 10.4. I have a hunch that I can do this with the "defaults" command. Has anyone had any experience? Specifically, I'm need to restore the control-f2 behavior to bring up the dock. Thanks in advance, Matt -- Matt Weiss - Software Journeyman X-Rite, Incorporated 3100 44th Street SW Grandville, MI 49418 _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Installer-dev mailing list (Installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/installer-dev/site_archiver%40lists.… This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: Is it legal to package "Plistbuddy" in our product?
by Dave Pugh 24 Aug '06

24 Aug '06

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com Mail-followup-to: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com User-agent: Mutt/1.5.10i It gets you a lot better plist editing capability, particularly with non-flat plists (arrays of arrays, etc). We also would VERY much like PlistBuddy to just be installed on the OS for everyone to use. I would encourage folks that are interested to file a bug report (enhancement request really) asking for this. --Dave On Thu, Aug 24, 2006 at 12:03:26PM -0700, installer-dev-request(a)lists.apple.com wrote: > I don't know for sure about the legality, but what does plistbuddy get > you that defaults read/write does not? _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Installer-dev mailing list (Installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/installer-dev/site_archiver%40lists.… This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: Is it legal to package "Plistbuddy" in our product?
by Christopher Ryan 24 Aug '06

24 Aug '06

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com Chris Hi All, Please comment. Thanks and Regards, Rohit Dhamija(M) 9818446545 _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Installer-dev mailing list (Installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/installer-dev/ryanc%40apple.com _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Installer-dev mailing list (Installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/installer-dev/site_archiver%40lists.… I don't know for sure about the legality, but what does plistbuddy get you that defaults read/write does not? We are developing our product in which we require use of "PLISTBUDDY" utility. The product needs to be shipped on Mac OS X 10.3 , 10.4 ppc and 10.4 intel platforms. But unfotunately i couldnot find a common package containing "plistbuddy" in all the OS. So (1) Is there a package that contains plistbuddy in all the OS , 10.3, 10.4, 10.4intel ? (2) Or alternatively, can I include plistbuddy in my own package.. Is it legal to do so? This email sent to ryanc(a)apple.com This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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