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

Re: svn and missing empty directories
by Stéphane Sudre 26 May '08

26 May '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com Hi, myapp.pmdoc/ payload/ dir1/ dir2/ ... scripts/ /\.svn/.+ I haven't tested it. _______________________________________________ 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.… On May 24, 2008, at 2:53 PM, Oliver Buerschaper wrote: I'm having a problem with PackageMaker 3.0.1 in conjunction with Subversion. All the source files needed to build the package are contained in a Subversion working directory which looks like this: Note that each directory contains an additional .svn/ directory with info for Subversion. Some of the directories under payload/ are empty but need to be placed onto the target nevertheless. However, when running PackageMaker on this Subversion working directory those empty directories don't end up in the package as I checked with Pacifist. When I don't run PackageMaker on the working directory but on an exported directory (no .svn/ subdirectories but otherwise identical) everything's fine. My suspicion is that the file filter rule /\.svn$ in PackageMaker is too aggressive and not only excludes the .svn/ subdirectory of an otherwsie empty directory but also the directory itself. So how can I prevent this? This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: postflight script and manual install questions
by Stéphane Sudre 26 May '08

26 May '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com Hi All! My questions are: _______________________________________________ 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.… On May 25, 2008, at 7:27 PM, Jen Linkova wrote: I'm trying to build a package using packagemaker from Xcode 3.0 on Leopard for 10.3 and above. Actually, the application itself is CLI one, so there is a applescript opening the terminal window so the user can simply type "./application_name" to launch it. 1)is there any way to launch the script just after the installation is finished and a user pressed "Close" button? Now I execute osascript <applescript name> from postflight script but in this case the terminal window is opening *before* the user closes Installer window. 2)The application is rather simple one and consists of just single directory which has to be placed in the particular place during the installation process. Because of that I'm considering using manual installation process instead of managed install. All I need to do is to create the application bundle (.app directory) and put it in a container (a disk image), right? My question is how to create the application bundle? Is there any CLI tool to perform this task? A solution could be to embed your cli tool in an application wrapper using DropScript (http://www.mit.edu/people/wsanchez/software/darwin/ DropScript-0.5.dmg) This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: FindFolder/sudo puzzle
by Stéphane Sudre 26 May '08

26 May '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com [...] // We need to locate the current user home folder NSString * tUserName; uid_t tUID; gid_t tGID; tUserName=(NSString *)SCDynamicStoreCopyConsoleUser(NULL,&tUID,&tGID); if (tUserName!=nil && [tUserName isEqualToString:@"loginwindow"]==NO) { // Is it the console user? NSString * tHomeFolder; tHomeFolder=NSHomeDirectoryForUser(tUserName); if (tHomeFolder!=nil) { // ... } [tUserName release]; } else { (void)fprintf(stderr, "No user is currently logged in\n"); } My $0.02 _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Installer-dev mailing list (Installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/installer-dev/site_archiver%40lists.… On May 25, 2008, at 12:42 AM, Andy O'Meara wrote: Thanks for the suggestions, Kevin. Unfortunately, I now realize that our little app runs under sudo root, it doesn't even matter if it know the right dir since any files or dir it creates will get tainted with root permission/ownership. Basically, this seems to rule out being able to write any files once the installer is in preflight (since its sudoed at that point). The only idea I have remaining is launching my app using sudo -u, which would solve the FindFolder() issue as well as the file owner/ permissions issue. The only thing left, however, is to choose the most reliable method to to get the username (or uid). The most obvious method would be the following in preflight: MY_RESULT=`sudo -u "${USER}" "$1/Contents/Resources/MyApp.app/ Contents/MacOS/MyApp"` Does anyone see any issues with this for use in 10.3 and later? Is it safe for me to be using USER? Another solution without using sudo would be to rely on the SystemConfiguration framework to get the uid of the currently logged in user. This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Cause of TaskLauncher::Launch Failed Error?
by Brian Stern 26 May '08

26 May '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com Hi All, What is the cause of this error reported in the console? Any advice on the cause of this error? Thanks, Brian -- Brian Stern brians99(a)bellsouth.net _______________________________________________ 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.… 5/24/08 2:12:23 PM /Volumes/MyDiskImage/MyInstaller[24242] TaskLauncher::Launch Failed I have an installer, distributed to users on a dmg. One user has reported that the installer doesn't work and the listed TaskLauncher::Launch Failed error is reported in the console. I think that 'the installer doesn't work' means that the installer does launch from the dmg but reports an error. The installer reports 'Access Denied' The installer is a Carbon installer built by InstallerMaker. The user was logged in as an admin user. The installer does try to install into /Applications and /Library/Application Support. The user reported that fixing permissions didn't fix the problem. The user is running on Leopard. Obviously testing this installer and dmg on my computer and others shows no problems. Googling 'TaskLauncher::Launch Failed' shows a small number of similar reports of this error. All seem to occur while installing something, I assume from dmg images or real CDs/DVDs. One report said that installing Leopard failed, with this error among others in the console log. Getting a new Leopard install disc fixed the problem in that case. One possibly unimportant fact: when I ls -la the mounted dmg I see my username/staff as the owner/group of all the files. Should I build the dmg with root as the owner of the files? This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: FindFolder/sudo puzzle
by henri 26 May '08

26 May '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com On May 24, 2008, at 3:42 PM, Andy O'Meara wrote: > Thanks for the suggestions, Kevin. Unfortunately, I now realize > that our little app runs under sudo root, it doesn't even matter if > it know the right dir since any files or dir it creates will get > tainted with root permission/ownership. Basically, this seems to > rule out being able to write any files once the installer is in > preflight (since its sudoed at that point). > > The only idea I have remaining is launching my app using sudo -u, > which would solve the FindFolder() issue as well as the file owner/ > permissions issue. The only thing left, however, is to choose the > most reliable method to to get the username (or uid). The most > obvious method would be the following in preflight: > > MY_RESULT=`sudo -u "${USER}" "$1/Contents/Resources/MyApp.app/ > Contents/MacOS/MyApp"` > > Does anyone see any issues with this for use in 10.3 and later? Is > it safe for me to be using USER? Apple frequently uses su -c ${USER}, which is very close to the same thing. We use su instead of sudo because (if I recall correctly) sudo can be configured to require keyboard confirmation to work, and that would screw up a postflight script in at least some cases. But yes, for all the kinds of scripts you write, su -c ${USER} is reliable and should keep working for quite some time. _______________________________________________ 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/henri%40stmargarets.sc… _______________________________________________ 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 have previously read that there were no problems using su rather than sudo. However, in my experience using 'su' in a login hook would intermittently crash the login process. Using 'sudo' rather than 'su' resolved the intermittent crashing. Therefore, I would recommend avoiding 'su' within a login hook. The intermittent issues I have seen certainly make me wary of using 'su -c' at all. This email sent to henri(a)stmargarets.school.nz This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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postflight script and manual install questions
by Jen Linkova 25 May '08

25 May '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com Dkim-signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:mime-version:content-type; bh=2dChFH8eZt9JN7giguQ50qmRgac3qGsxcJ86u5zr0js=; b=tmZZlA99StD28khPucvSRORRLTRGUeKR+fzm11PFQEC/iyTMiduBH185Sqs+rBSATuOMVmzxqHTNYXn5/zEVDmam2UOmDGwGt5e4safN8AlpPOJKLdafVk8aWhbVUESb8Qy+chQMlxahWmgo+QP3FilNrUo80YFL/af/yZq0vkk= Domainkey-signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:to:subject:mime-version:content-type; b=D5TiTc3tQ+aGgl7kPhoehlfdvqDVXloP6WdxyLS0KWWOvqItcKQ5MkX/hEKpxY5NHkDkxqaWebgK4dVVQ/6xUnf18XqSYYA/zCY4NH/9FRhCnUPTIutFLCv4ns6EI8knwbBZ8egleNxpo9qGOcbJOYqeIyCneeiJo1hEIwyDOpc= _______________________________________________ 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: FindFolder/sudo puzzle
by Bill Coderre 25 May '08

25 May '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com I am not being clear enough: su ${USER} -c "command flags arg arg arg..." _______________________________________________ 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.… On May 24, 2008, at 8:24 PM, Bruce Carter wrote: On May 24, 2008, at 10:34 PM, Bill Coderre wrote: Apple frequently uses su -c ${USER}, which is very close to the same thing. We use su instead of sudo because (if I recall correctly) sudo can be configured to require keyboard confirmation to work, and that would screw up a postflight script in at least some cases. But yes, for all the kinds of scripts you write, su -c ${USER} is reliable and should keep working for quite some time. Should anything be read into the fact that the -c option is no longer listed on the man page for su in Leopard? This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: FindFolder/sudo puzzle
by Bruce Carter 25 May '08

25 May '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.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.… On May 24, 2008, at 10:34 PM, Bill Coderre wrote: Apple frequently uses su -c ${USER}, which is very close to the same thing. We use su instead of sudo because (if I recall correctly) sudo can be configured to require keyboard confirmation to work, and that would screw up a postflight script in at least some cases. But yes, for all the kinds of scripts you write, su -c ${USER} is reliable and should keep working for quite some time. Should anything be read into the fact that the -c option is no longer listed on the man page for su in Leopard? -- Bruce Carter, Senior Systems Engineer http://www.nd.edu/~bcarter/ Center for Creative Computing, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556 This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: FindFolder/sudo puzzle
by Bill Coderre 25 May '08

25 May '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com On May 24, 2008, at 3:42 PM, Andy O'Meara wrote: Thanks for the suggestions, Kevin. Unfortunately, I now realize that our little app runs under sudo root, it doesn't even matter if it know the right dir since any files or dir it creates will get tainted with root permission/ownership. Basically, this seems to rule out being able to write any files once the installer is in preflight (since its sudoed at that point). The only idea I have remaining is launching my app using sudo -u, which would solve the FindFolder() issue as well as the file owner/ permissions issue. The only thing left, however, is to choose the most reliable method to to get the username (or uid). The most obvious method would be the following in preflight: MY_RESULT=`sudo -u "${USER}" "$1/Contents/Resources/MyApp.app/ Contents/MacOS/MyApp"` Does anyone see any issues with this for use in 10.3 and later? Is it safe for me to be using USER? Apple frequently uses su -c ${USER}, which is very close to the same thing. We use su instead of sudo because (if I recall correctly) sudo can be configured to require keyboard confirmation to work, and that would screw up a postflight script in at least some cases. But yes, for all the kinds of scripts you write, su -c ${USER} is reliable and should keep working for quite some time. _______________________________________________ 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: FindFolder/sudo puzzle
by Andy O'Meara 24 May '08

24 May '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com Thanks, Andy On May 24, 2008, at 11:31 AM, Kevin Grant wrote: You'd have an unprivileged process somewhere. There's at least a couple of ways to do it: - make "the installer" a tiny unprivileged program that derives the user directory, and then runs the "real" installer program (passing the path, e.g. through an environment variable) - run the installer itself without privileges; invoke the 2nd app immediately, then request administrator privileges later Kevin G. Here's an interesting one... Thanks in advance, Andy _______________________________________________ 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.… Thanks for the suggestions, Kevin. Unfortunately, I now realize that our little app runs under sudo root, it doesn't even matter if it know the right dir since any files or dir it creates will get tainted with root permission/ownership. Basically, this seems to rule out being able to write any files once the installer is in preflight (since its sudoed at that point). The only idea I have remaining is launching my app using sudo -u, which would solve the FindFolder() issue as well as the file owner/ permissions issue. The only thing left, however, is to choose the most reliable method to to get the username (or uid). The most obvious method would be the following in preflight: MY_RESULT=`sudo -u "${USER}" "$1/Contents/Resources/MyApp.app/Contents/ MacOS/MyApp"` Does anyone see any issues with this for use in 10.3 and later? Is it safe for me to be using USER? Our installer package has to run an app that runs that ultimately needs to create a file in the current user's preferences dir. At first glance, calling FindFolder() with kUserDomain would be the way to get the the desired pathname. Unfortunately, however, since the installer is running under sudo, all the paths returned by FindFolder() point into /private/var/root, etc. So the question becomes, is there any way to get the correct info from FindFolder()? The goal would be to come up with something as reliable as possible that doesn't contain any hard-coded paths/assumptions. This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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