January 2009 - Installer-dev

Updated PackageMaker User Guide?
by Paul Cook 14 Jan '09

14 Jan '09

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com FYI, http://developer.apple.com/documentation/DeveloperTools/Conceptual/PackageM… Best Wishes, Paul _______________________________________________ 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 just discovered that there appears to be an updated PackageMaker User Guide. The publication date is listed as 2009-01-06. Not sure what else has changed. I got my copy at: This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: Size Limit With Packagemaker 3.1.2 ??
by Paul Cook 14 Jan '09

14 Jan '09

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com Best Wishes, Paul On Jan 11, 2009, at 10:20 PM, Paul Cook wrote: Thanks for any insight, Paul _______________________________________________ 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/cook.p.d%40comcast.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.… I don't know if it is by size in MBytes or quantity. But yes, there is some kind of a limit. I was able to split it up and now it works. Should I expect size limits associated with Apple's PackageMaker? If so, does anyone know about what it is? Or workarounds or alternatives? I've been trying to repackage Office 2008, with updates, and some local customization for deployment, but am finding that PackageMaker crashes on when I try to view the "Contents" tab to check the privileges. I've tried skipping this step and going straight to a build, but that crashes too. I haven't had this problem repackaging Office 2004, and while I'm still learning my way around, I've had good luck repackaging quite a number of other things. Though I also had similar problems with iLife 08. (May or may not be an issue now that iLife 09 is here.) The fact that both were unusually large makes me wonder if there might be some size limit somewhere. I'm doing my imaging on an Intel MacMini running all the latest updates on Leopard with 4G or RAM and lots of drive space. Packagemaker is version 3.1.2. This email sent to cook.p.d(a)comcast.net This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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InstallationCheck script is getting its executable bit reset
by Kevin Kicklighter 14 Jan '09

14 Jan '09

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: Installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com Thanks, Kevin _______________________________________________ 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.… Using Leopard PackageMaker 3.0.2. 1. I have an existing pmdoc 2. Switched to Raw Editing Mode 3. Dragged my InstallationCheck and InstallationCheck.strings files (defined "16"="Some Error" ) into the Resources folder. (noticed that the index.xml had absolute paths in it, which is a different problem) 4. Built it 5. Opened package and noticed it doesn't work (script does not run), and also noticed that PackageMaker reset my executable bit. 6. I manually did the chmod to make it executable (inside of the metapackage), opened package again, still didn't run script. Any ideas why my InstallationScript will not run? Do I have to add some javascript in the distribution.dist file? This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: making an installed application run at startup
by Jason Proctor 14 Jan '09

14 Jan '09

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com -Greg On Jan 13, 2009, at 4:30 PM, Jason Proctor 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 the installer project i'm looking at, there are two items which are both applications installed into /Applications. i would check the box for one of them and not the other. i'm just being flippant about the one checkbox thing, but IMHO this would be a good area for the Installer to help out. some applications can legitimately need to start at login, and all the solutions proposed here have drawbacks - from messing up a previously good loginwindow.plist, to having something start at launch for a user who didn't install the application. At 4:42 PM -0800 1/13/09, Greg Neagle wrote: How would PackageMaker know which executable to launch at login from a simple checkbox? Your installer could install several executable items. I agree that PackageMaker could help, but I'm not convinced it would be and easy addition to PackageMaker, or that Apple should encourage developers to easily add things to the LoginItems. I have enough things launching at login that I didn't ask for... all this could have been avoided by a checkbox in PackageMaker. then the Installer could ask the user whether it's OK to do it, etc. this is a simple requirement that has been massively overcomplicated -- IMHO. This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: making an installed application run at startup
by Greg Neagle 14 Jan '09

14 Jan '09

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com -Greg On Jan 13, 2009, at 4:30 PM, Jason Proctor 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.… How would PackageMaker know which executable to launch at login from a simple checkbox? Your installer could install several executable items. I agree that PackageMaker could help, but I'm not convinced it would be and easy addition to PackageMaker, or that Apple should encourage developers to easily add things to the LoginItems. I have enough things launching at login that I didn't ask for... all this could have been avoided by a checkbox in PackageMaker. then the Installer could ask the user whether it's OK to do it, etc. this is a simple requirement that has been massively overcomplicated -- IMHO. This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: making an installed application run at startup
by Jason Proctor 14 Jan '09

14 Jan '09

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com hey Karl, thanks for your detailed informative response. regards j _______________________________________________ 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 would be really careful about doing things like this. There are three reasons for this: all the scenarios you describe happen, i'm sure. however the most common scenario for our application is, by far, a user sitting at home doing a local install affecting the environment of the user who is currently logged in. If you absolutely have to have it, then you probably should look into writing yourself into /Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist, namely inside the AutoLaunchedApplicationDictionary item (it should be an array). It you can't justify putting yourself in that file, then you should not have your installer do this. as i understand it, writing to /Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist would activate this for all users. if a machine is shared between users, then i want the run-at-login component to run only for those users who have run the installer. i will have time to revisit this in the future but for right now i have to go with the simple solution for the most common scenario. all this could have been avoided by a checkbox in PackageMaker. then the Installer could ask the user whether it's OK to do it, etc. this is a simple requirement that has been massively overcomplicated -- IMHO. This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: making an installed application run at startup
by Karl Kuehn 14 Jan '09

14 Jan '09

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:from:to :in-reply-to:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:mime-version :subject:date:references:x-mailer; bh=ki04MBS2+e9cchcdQgk306pkXiTuhamM1p84iQ+BxKY=; b=mcp/PCT6emW3U/sm1MBE3ngPs2PBnO1emaeo0zNNKXW74sSKOss+0RGm1eb8tHstTH zWGPg+iqzsJZIKUP65DMQvlacqWIRPd3xcFoqFCtvag6Oc3Yj4W4xx2r9H7oni6oGmtx CF/4tjkln017yE72puQ1U9jF9Balf7QisrJJo= Domainkey-signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:from:to:in-reply-to:content-type :content-transfer-encoding:mime-version:subject:date:references :x-mailer; b=rl5aNZzY38YE8v+Nxm0zDNGuWE1dAifq+8FQpX5lgI83Orkcjg3ARJ6CRmCoxJI5dz 3y1DCBWqhewxJIvZkTbWyr6l57pqoygn4ht9BLS00/yA27c7M94piFv2yCM6fxR1wea/ QSpfGPhON2yPvYkg5gl0Xf8jRbKsIRTZnoybg= On Jan 13, 2009, at 2:02 PM, Jason Proctor wrote: btw, just found a simple way by googling around -- -- 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.… /usr/bin/osascript -e "tell application \"System Events\" to make new login item with properties { path: \"/Applications/YourApp.app \", hidden:false } at end" seems to work, though there is some jiggerypokery required with the quotes to make the shell happy with it. I would be really careful about doing things like this. There are three reasons for this: 1) The applications is being installed via Apple Remote Desktop. In that case the user who is at the console may not have any idea that the application is being installed. And there is a good chance that there might be no-one logged in at the time, so this is not going to work (most AppleScript does not work when at the loginwindow) 2) The computer may have more than one account, and so you are not necessarily working on the correct account. 3) Your installer might be running inside InstaDMG or Apple's SUI, both of which run on target volumes. So in the case of InstaDMG your installer would put files in one place, but then make the startup item on another volume completely. I also strongly dislike things that decide without my input that they need to run at startup. It is practice that happens all the time on Windows, and seriously degrades performance. In my mind a much better solution if you have to run at login is to ask the user if they would like that behavior on first launch. If you absolutely have to have it, then you probably should look into writing yourself into /Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist, namely inside the AutoLaunchedApplicationDictionary item (it should be an array). It you can't justify putting yourself in that file, then you should not have your installer do this. This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: making an installed application run at startup
by Jason Proctor 13 Jan '09

13 Jan '09

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com btw, just found a simple way by googling around -- hth _______________________________________________ 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.… /usr/bin/osascript -e "tell application \"System Events\" to make new login item with properties { path: \"/Applications/YourApp.app\", hidden:false } at end" seems to work, though there is some jiggerypokery required with the quotes to make the shell happy with it. This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: making an installed application run at startup
by Jason Proctor 13 Jan '09

13 Jan '09

site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev(a)lists.apple.com For (2), you have 3 solutions: - add the application to the LoginItems - use a LaunchAgent thanks for the response. thanks for any help with this, j _______________________________________________ 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.… For (1), you can't run any application during boot time if it includes a User Interface and one of the solutions is to use LaunchDaemons. - use another API you can get information on by contacting DTS. sorry for not being clear; i meant the app should run on login for the user who ran the installer. another responder suggested using defaults or PListBuddy to add an entry to ~/Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist . ideally there would be a more elegant solution. for the first option, would I create a symlink or alias to ~/LoginItems to the application? this is going to get done in a postinstall script (unless there's a better place for it). This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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Re: making an installed application run at startup
by dev.iceberg＠gmail.com 13 Jan '09

13 Jan '09

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:in-reply-to:references :mime-version:content-type:message-id:cc:content-transfer-encoding :from:subject:date:to:x-mailer; bh=O6DkMYKyd4/ib6N1REHZauWY0KNL36yWejZ71MncTaU=; b=gnQ1EK6CrhRI08eKY1wBzrNTWM7acgLAWDLF59vYyQmbZE3GncqQNOAw4uy7SUOzEe U+hcR7HhOWBHgKY6PuQjzACOHFNZLo+lAhDQoxSNVir9bJxTxWLmAqoqLkmS8L4PDONV n3ohW/octGiRtewjFOqU0rHvZy9Dj4JIikNEw= Domainkey-signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=in-reply-to:references:mime-version:content-type:message-id:cc :content-transfer-encoding:from:subject:date:to:x-mailer; b=iSwhqyaXH8seCQT0uI22x1fm+tJHI6uYDrEVYxwxExvKKIoporfonLHyiNucjYNx0P alPxV1+ctuIjXv1o5Qn/CHK6UGQmH+A4CTJUCnN0DFGzMnitzNBFcpbsuw4u6LlMvthh imbd32J5WrI3YBr3K32Udj/UcEP5Py8lC+cp0= On Jan 13, 2009, at 12:43 PM, Jason Proctor wrote: sorry if this is a FAQ, i can't find it anywhere. Can you specify what you mean by startup: - during boot time (1) or - after login (2) ? For (2), you have 3 solutions: - add the application to the LoginItems - use a LaunchAgent - use another API you can get information on by contacting DTS. _______________________________________________ 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.… can i make a freshly installed application run at startup? For (1), you can't run any application during boot time if it includes a User Interface and one of the solutions is to use LaunchDaemons. This email sent to site_archiver(a)lists.apple.com

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