March 2008 - Installer-dev - lists.apple.com

Re: Finder version info not updated
by Stéphane Sudre 03 Mar '08

03 Mar '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com On Mar 3, 2008, at 6:56 PM, Rick Hoge wrote: _______________________________________________ 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.… In adapting our distribution materials to the Leopard tools, I've had a few frustrating experiences. One involved having an app bundle get stashed in an unexpected location if "allow relocation" was checked for the component (see separate email). Another is that it seems that the version number for an app bundle shown in the Finder is not updated, even if the bundle actually is upgraded to a higher version by the installer. I lost some time wondering why, after repeated invocations of a new installer package, the version of my app in /Applications was still at 1.6.4. For a while, this was because the installer was upgrading some obscure development copy of the app, rather than the copy in the default /Applications folder. After fixing this and running the installer again, I ran the (supposedly v1.6.4 app) and found that it was actually the updated version (1.6.5). This was confirmed in the About panel and other places where the version can be inspected in the app. In fact using 'grep' inside the bundle confirmed there was absolutely no instance of the text '1.6.4' anywhere inside the bundle. Restarting the Finder caused the version number to update to the correct value. Is this a known bug? (will file if confirmed I'm not screwing something up) Even if it's a known one (someone reported such an issue on this list some days ago), file a bug report against it. This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: Effects of "allow relocation" in Components tab
by Stéphane Sudre 03 Mar '08

03 Mar '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com On Mar 3, 2008, at 6:59 PM, Rick Hoge wrote: _______________________________________________ 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.… So my question: when would it actually be a good idea to check this box? When you build the package for deployment to your customer. That being said, this option may be re-enabled in your back with the current version of PackageMaker. And another question: what is the logic followed by the Installer when it finds multiple versions of an app in deciding which location (or locations?) to upgrade if it finds them? As far as I know, the first location that matches will be selected. Apparently, you can specify an additional criteria based on the minimum and maximum version of the component to filter out some locations. A long time ago, IIRC, you could also state that the user would be allowed to select the best location. is this documented somewhere? I really appreciate your sense of humor. Considering that the PackageMaker 3 documentation is mostly made of 4 screenshots surrounded by text (and that you have to launch the Xcode just to access it), that the Software Delivery Guide refers to the Tiger version of PackageMaker, that the Distribution Definition Reference documentation is incomplete, that the package format lacks a proper documentation (forget about overwrite-permissions), that the Installer Javascript Reference is missing good examples, it would be surprising if something as esoteric as relocators would be documented. To get information about relocators, you would need to look into old OS releases (Panther, Jaguar) and release notes. Documentation is a foreign word when it comes to Installation. This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Debugging Installer Plugins
by Robert Kukuchka 03 Mar '08

03 Mar '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com How can I set up a Custom Executable to properly Debug an Installer Plugin from within XCode 3.0? With most bundles it's a fairly straight forward process, but I'm missing something in setting this up. Any helpers out there? Cheers Rob _______________________________________________ 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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PackageMaker 3.0.1 and requirement script
by Steven Meyer 03 Mar '08

03 Mar '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com Domainkey-signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=dk20050327; d=earthlink.net; b=Y4rhW7LSQfkae5SnsIcEcP5zgaMQcBkTHC8JPomN+T/GPkD4pBKaxhguTT5pk0aM; h=Received:Message-Id:From:To:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding:Mime-Version:Subject:Date:X-Mailer:X-ELNK-Trace:X-Originating-IP; I'll describe my problems more specifically Or any other solution would be fine. thank you Steven Meyer Technology from the boondocks _______________________________________________ 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 am having difficulties running a shell script from the Requirements of an installer distribution. How do I add a shell script to a distribution package so that it will be run in the requirements? This is packagemaker 3.0.1. I am selecting "script for target "in the requirements. My script is exiting 0, but the check fails. Looking at "Distribution.dist" in raw editing mode, I see a javascript routine defined. function pm_volume_check() { if(!(system.run('/Users/stevenmeyer/scripts/check_target.sh') == true)) { my.result.title = 'Failure'; my.result.message = 'Cannot install to volume'; my.result.type = 'Fatal'; return false; } return true; } in the documentation system.run returns the exit code of the script, so the statement "(system.run('/Users/stevenmeyer/scripts/ check_target.sh') == true)" is wrong. Exiting with 1, however gets a passed requirement check. That problem dealt with, I find another which stumps me. The absolute path of the script is coded into the javascript. system.run looks for a script in the the /content/Resources/ . I add scripts to the Resources folder in raw editing mode but javascript does not find them. If I knew the installers path while in javascript, I could perhaps work around this by calling my script with an absolute path. Looking in the documentation, I find nothing about installer path while in javascript. So, How do I put my script in content/resources? or How can I find the installer path in javascript so that I can call script placed elsewhere? I am trying to discover if photoshop is on a volume, where it is and what version. I can handle that pretty much from the shell. I do not know how to do this from javascript. This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: Effects of "allow relocation" in Components tab
by Rick Hoge 03 Mar '08

03 Mar '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com Thanks again, 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.… So my question: when would it actually be a good idea to check this box? And another question: what is the logic followed by the Installer when it finds multiple versions of an app in deciding which location (or locations?) to upgrade if it finds them? is this documented somewhere? This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Finder version info not updated
by Rick Hoge 03 Mar '08

03 Mar '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com Thanks, Rick (40132) _______________________________________________ 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.… In adapting our distribution materials to the Leopard tools, I've had a few frustrating experiences. One involved having an app bundle get stashed in an unexpected location if "allow relocation" was checked for the component (see separate email). Another is that it seems that the version number for an app bundle shown in the Finder is not updated, even if the bundle actually is upgraded to a higher version by the installer. I lost some time wondering why, after repeated invocations of a new installer package, the version of my app in /Applications was still at 1.6.4. For a while, this was because the installer was upgrading some obscure development copy of the app, rather than the copy in the default /Applications folder. After fixing this and running the installer again, I ran the (supposedly v1.6.4 app) and found that it was actually the updated version (1.6.5). This was confirmed in the About panel and other places where the version can be inspected in the app. In fact using 'grep' inside the bundle confirmed there was absolutely no instance of the text '1.6.4' anywhere inside the bundle. Restarting the Finder caused the version number to update to the correct value. Is this a known bug? (will file if confirmed I'm not screwing something up) This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Effects of "allow relocation" in Components tab
by Rick Hoge 03 Mar '08

03 Mar '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com Thanks for any insights, 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 recently created an installer package with the PackageMaker tool under Leopard. I encountered quite a few problems, in a process that used to be fairly easy. One of the strange effects I found was related to selection of the "allow relocation" box under the Components tab for a package. If this is selected, it seems that the Installer searchers all over the hard drive for versions of the app, and may well put the installed version in an unexpected location. On a development system with versions of our app placed in various places for training and testing, this made it seem as if the installation failed to create the intended app bundle. In fact what happened was that the updated app was being put in some obscure location overtop of an old version that had been used in testing - rather than in the default /Applications folder. Our actual application can in fact be relocated, but this installer behavior makes checking that box kind of risky. Unless someone indicates I'm missing something, I'll file a bug suggesting that the detection of multiple copies of an app get reported to the user, and that the destination actually used for an installation also be indicated. The search behavior is mentioned in the PM doc, but there should be a warning as well. So my question: when would it actually be a good idea to check this box? This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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