September 2008 - Installer-dev

Re: Package maker always looses destination path, often access rights?
by Karl Kuehn 09 Sep '08

09 Sep '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:cc:message-id:from:to :in-reply-to:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:mime-version :subject:date:references:x-mailer; bh=psjmQvqvpiw/iSYL5jWHQFbOMeTzG/GCSXUJGjMCKQI=; b=KOx7ikSjzHumuI3TjDBNGlNQ4u03xjE8uG161LpOZVhvUdS+tV705nOtgVk95rFcgt FfL5xtAcikhTReSZApdX9oKFsOyBjPnHpHB3TW7Yy/nSSEhHiC9ie8Pwf1xyZfIY1yNb o0vwm2TWwZgGa3uzfViZAevVTbTIjwUQf1iBU= Domainkey-signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=cc:message-id:from:to:in-reply-to:content-type :content-transfer-encoding:mime-version:subject:date:references :x-mailer; b=DDgfo7Dp2mtSpvwYRfHt9O9gOTu9497sxy0Ybnw4o7cLCNSpOPtCy0sSQp7NoPNbYx amojgnn/5UJ1n1b36jJ9l175PRwlFKRyo6J81k+kNDaaBdUDOz5D9nNDJYvpqU7ebKuP AfyPJE41T1DfFFhzYI0l+9PI2I2dPmRlZtyUk= On Sep 8, 2008, at 5:44 PM, John Brisbin wrote: -- Karl Kuehn larkost(a)softhome.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.… You may get the permissions correct immediately after the install, but if your user 'repairs' permissions you are broken again. This is because the receipts file for the install contains the wrong permission information and your post install script is not run again during the repair to fix them. Am I wrong? Yep, you are. "Repair Permissions" only uses the bom files from a select group of Apple-installed pkgs. Everything else is ignored. I do agree that post-flights are a bad way of covering up for PackageMaker's problems (Iceberg is a much better solution when possible), but this is not the reason why. This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: Package maker always looses destination path, often access rights?
by John Brisbin 09 Sep '08

09 Sep '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com User-agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.16 (Macintosh/20080707) Am I wrong? John Brisbin _______________________________________________ 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.… Thomas Engelmeier wrote: - I worked around the "lost permissions" bug with an post-install script. Ugly but effective. In my experience, a post-install just papers over the problem very temporarily. You may get the permissions correct immediately after the install, but if your user 'repairs' permissions you are broken again. This is because the receipts file for the install contains the wrong permission information and your post install script is not run again during the repair to fix them. This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: PackageMaker newbie questions
by Stéphane Sudre 08 Sep '08

08 Sep '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com On Sep 8, 2008, at 5:59 PM, David Watson wrote: test/ - contains my files to install scripts/ - contains my scripts resources/ - contains License.rtf Distribution (an installer-script XML file) Resources, containing my License.rtf test.pkg, containing what I'd expect No, there isn't. No. But you can figure it out using the Flat Package Editor. _______________________________________________ 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 just started wading into the world of PackageMaker - I've been doing Mac development for a while, but just now started working on packaging. I've been trying to reconcile the Software Delivery Guide with the current reality, since it appears the guide has not been updated for about 2 years. What I've determined is that if I target my packages for 10.4, everything seems to work as I would expect, but when targeted for 10.5, things go a bit off the rails. I understand the different is the new flat package format, which behaves rather differently from bundle-based packages. The PackageMaker GUI seems to be horrendously broken as of version 3.0.2, and I prefer to script my builds, so I've been using the command-line. It appears that if you build a flat package from the command line, it implicitly creates a distribution package, completely with distribution script. I haven't figured out how to convince it to use my Welcome and License files, so I'm wondering if there is some additional magic. Here's my structure: If I run: /Developer/Applications/Utilities/PackageMaker.app/ Contents/MacOS/PackageMaker -v --root test/ --id com.example.testpkg --version 1 -s scripts/ -e resources/ --out test.pkg This produces a bundle-style package, working as I would expect. If I add --target 10.5, however, that's where things go weird. When I run this, it ignores my License.rtf, although I can see it is included in the package. Running pkgutil --expand shows me that the test.pkg actually contains: Is there any way, when targeting 10.5, to have it *not* create a distribution metapackage? This is because FLAT packages can't include Welcome, ReadMe or License files. So as soon as you specify a Welcome file, PackageMaker will build a "metapackage". Also, is there any documentation on the PackageInfo file? Alternatively, is there a way to build a pmdoc that simply references packages that I've built separately? It looks like there should be, in theory, by using "Add Package Reference", but that just seems to be horribly busted. Drag & Drop? I don't remember if it always work, never or just sometimes. This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: Package maker always looses destination path, often access rights?
by Perbix, Michael 08 Sep '08

08 Sep '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com Thread-index: AckR7B523hUvgaWmT0qPFNmihTP/RAAAtTvJ Thread-topic: Package maker always looses destination path, often access rights? Have you tried Iceberg? I use that whenever I have a package that acts up that was made with Packagemaker...matter of fact, with InstallEase (from LANrev) I always create a package, and a Iceberg project file (it even collects your files into a "source" folder) so I can then fool around with the files should I have any issues with the package that was created. It also makes a DMG of your file structure, as well as an "uninstaller" which is just a script that removes what was installed.... -Mike On 9/8/08 3:49 PM, "Philip Aker" <philip.aker(a)shaw.ca> wrote: On Sep 8, 2008, at 11:13 AM, John Brisbin wrote: > Brett George wrote: >> Package Maker v3 is full of bugs and pretty much useless. I >> recommend copying across an old copy from Tiger. >> > When I needed to make installer construction part of the automated > process, I reached the same conclusion independently, long before > joining this list. I might have been more tactful, or I might not. Personally I'd rather have Apple be graceful about the matter and provide a comprehensive bug-list instead of wasting the time of everyone who goes though the same unfortunate experience. For those of us who get payed per/contract rather than per/hour, it's a serious issue. Philip Aker echo astwta@lvpc.dslh@nl | tr a-z@. p-za-o.@ Democracy: Two wolves and a sheep voting on lunch. _______________________________________________ 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/perbix%40lmsd.org This email sent to perbix(a)lmsd.org _______________________________________________ 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: Package maker always looses destination path, often access rights?
by Philip Aker 08 Sep '08

08 Sep '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com On Sep 8, 2008, at 11:13 AM, John Brisbin wrote: Philip Aker echo astwta@lvpc.dslh@nl | tr a-z@. p-za-o.@ Democracy: Two wolves and a sheep voting on lunch. _______________________________________________ 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.… Brett George wrote: Package Maker v3 is full of bugs and pretty much useless. I recommend copying across an old copy from Tiger. When I needed to make installer construction part of the automated process, I reached the same conclusion independently, long before joining this list. I might have been more tactful, or I might not. Personally I'd rather have Apple be graceful about the matter and provide a comprehensive bug-list instead of wasting the time of everyone who goes though the same unfortunate experience. For those of us who get payed per/contract rather than per/hour, it's a serious issue. This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: Package maker always looses destination path, often access rights?
by Thomas Engelmeier 08 Sep '08

08 Sep '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com Am 08.09.2008 um 20:13 schrieb John Brisbin: Thanks to everyone for the input! Regards, Tom_E _______________________________________________ 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 should hardly be news to anyone who reads this list, but I hope it might become a bit more important in the developer's (or their manager's) minds. Fortunately, we still target 10.4 (and will for some time) so any 10.5 features tend to be unused anyway. This means there is still time for us (and most developers with existing products) to allow the tool to mature enough to be useful. Well, I have a strong aversion against banana-soft ("ripes at the customer site"). The worst thing IMO is that permission-wise broken installers pretty easy bypass an QA test and there is no log what was actually installed or skipped.. Here is some more food for google: - the package maker pmdoc files contain pretty straightforward xml files with the installer data - in various attempts, there I found NO way to make anything remotely like the install destination path appear in the xml. - I worked around the "lost permissions" bug with an post-install script. Ugly but effective. - the docs leave as much as the app itself room for improvement. The following points are missing an explaination: a.) what is the difference between the destination path in a choice and a package b.) the checkbox [x] include root in package of the content tab of an sub-package seems to mean "create an folder with the name of the root folder at the destination path", otherwise the child folders are created / updated at the destination path c.) some important settings are hidden in the contextual "Package flags…" menu of a sub-package d.) even if choices are not visible, the choice name appears as caption in File->Show Files the installer e.) Loading a kext after install by the means of Package Maker is flaky: Sometimes with broken permissions an dialog "is not installed correctly" appears directly when the install is done, but not always This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: Package maker always looses destination path, often access rights?
by John Brisbin 08 Sep '08

08 Sep '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com User-agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.16 (Macintosh/20080707) John Brisbin _______________________________________________ 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.… Brett George wrote: Package Maker v3 is full of bugs and pretty much useless. I recommend copying across an old copy from Tiger. When I needed to make installer construction part of the automated process, I reached the same conclusion independently, long before joining this list. I might have been more tactful, or I might not. In my case, the deal breaker that I could not work around was the loss of permissions. That was not the only issue, just the one that made it impossible to use. When 3.1 (PackageMaker 3.0.2) came out, I gave it another try and tripped over new (or perhaps previously undiscovered problems). I returned again to the 2.1.1 build. UI improvements may be fine. Don't need 'em. Need basic functionality with command line invocation. This should hardly be news to anyone who reads this list, but I hope it might become a bit more important in the developer's (or their manager's) minds. Fortunately, we still target 10.4 (and will for some time) so any 10.5 features tend to be unused anyway. This means there is still time for us (and most developers with existing products) to allow the tool to mature enough to be useful. This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: Package maker always looses destination path, often access rights?
by Bill Cheeseman 08 Sep '08

08 Sep '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com Thread-index: AckR0VWsrQMcM3h6Tv6u2mFbdPnUMA== Thread-topic: Package maker always looses destination path, often access rights? User-agent: Microsoft-Entourage/12.12.0.080729 on 2008-09-08 11:37 AM, Brett George at brett(a)apogeedigital.com wrote: > Package Maker v3 is full of bugs and pretty much useless. It was certainly my impression that it was full of bugs, but I did manage to make use of it. I had not used earlier versions of PackageMaker, so I was coming at it for the first time. A combination of relatively unhelpful documentation (the documentation makes way too many assumptions about the reader's prior experience with PackageMaker) and a staggering number of bugs made it very difficult for me to get anywhere with PackageMaker 3.0.1 -- even for a Leopard-only app that allowed me to avoid dealing with the needs of installation on older systems. I hear that 3.0.2 added more bugs; I don't know whether it fixed any of the old bugs. But I did manage to make it work. I have written a step-by-step how-to article which I hope to post somewhere soon. It lists all the bugs I found and their workarounds, for a Leopard-only installation. Keep an eye out for an announcement when I do post it. (And I hope to find time to post the bugs pretty soon.) -- Bill Cheeseman - bill(a)cheeseman.name Quechee Software, Quechee, Vermont, USA www.quecheesoftware.com PreFab Software - www.prefabsoftware.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.… This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: Package maker always looses destination path, often access rights?
by Brett George 08 Sep '08

08 Sep '08

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com User-agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.16 (Macintosh/20080707) Luke Bellandi wrote: > On 9/8/08 8:37 AM, "Brett George" <brett(a)apogeedigital.com> wrote: > >> Thomas Engelmeier wrote: >>> What triggers the Package Maker amnesia? Is there an known workaround? >>> How do you folks create kext installers? >> Package Maker v3 is full of bugs and pretty much useless. I recommend >> copying across an old copy from Tiger. > > > Is that right? I find v3 to be quite useful and a massive improvement over > earlier generations given its WYSIWIG editor, and UI hooks into almost all > functionality provided by the installation packaging and install mechanism > on Mac OS X. > > Maybe you would be so kind as to expand on your broad, yet wholly > unspecific, criticism of the product for this list's edification? You might > also consider filing bugs on the product with Apple in an effort to help > improve the product. There is the "Setting to : 0 (null)" bug question that I posted a few weeks ago that remains unanswered on the group. Most importantly, there is the wrong permissions bug (filed as rdar: 5684862 and marked as a known issue rdar:5462856). I've tried to do everything I can to get you guys info to fix these problems and they remain unfixed and seemingly ignored every since Leopard was released (which is close to a year now). There is literally NO WAY that I know of to build a kext installer with package maker 3. Brett _______________________________________________ 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: Package maker always looses destination path, often access rights?
by Karl Kuehn 08 Sep '08

08 Sep '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:cc:message-id:from:to :in-reply-to:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:mime-version :subject:date:references:x-mailer; bh=xposTc3ODOVm4kNUgeCIJdueh+EzucoeztioPoQBY5A=; b=WIFukTUw392Yomq1S7kkDkMuK4lxleMVoeW5ZE1EQjUwliTQ211SFJObgxanFShiiO RRExz+JgHJfKXC2G2QZPXH1UBkRG9x67NAkF+ZB+LA+FOpM1tfK+YTu8ntjZkhsexY/U ojUo5ZpvhOfTrR6M5dh6DIg3ORpfpvj5BY9Bs= Domainkey-signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=cc:message-id:from:to:in-reply-to:content-type :content-transfer-encoding:mime-version:subject:date:references :x-mailer; b=xrq5LB8q7zGYi3VTO/P39BO/vyzEsaH80OtX8ALYms54ZIIG2s/1H9h6yi+Qy/maBx +Qt49dxXgPcuiWt71KcGzSPqmIIsd9dnUfH1daIGFdSNSpHFMzGO7j/2tHQCECj26kJI yVqpR1b4rb8OG9OoCx7lTTa8J8t5ucpc60CFA= On Sep 8, 2008, at 9:02 AM, Luke Bellandi wrote: Package Maker v3 is full of bugs and pretty much useless. I recommend copying across an old copy from Tiger. -- Karl Kuehn larkost(a)softhome.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.… What triggers the Package Maker amnesia? Is there an known workaround? How do you folks create kext installers? Is that right? I find v3 to be quite useful and a massive improvement over earlier generations given its WYSIWIG editor, and UI hooks into almost all functionality provided by the installation packaging and install mechanism on Mac OS X. Maybe you would be so kind as to expand on your broad, yet wholly unspecific, criticism of the product for this list's edification? You might also consider filing bugs on the product with Apple in an effort to help improve the product. I too have seen the same bugs: Package Maker forgetting paths to things when you close the document (every single time), seemingly random changes in what files it remembers. Forgetting permission settings after a build, etc. I have long since returned to using Iceberg. When the next version of PackageMaker comes out (3.1) I will try again, but not until then. These problems have been talked about on many lists before. I believe that this list is one of them. This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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