site_archiver@lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev@lists.apple.com Jens, Hi, Chris Jens _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Installer-dev mailing list (Installer-dev@lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/installer-dev/site_archiver%40lists.a... I combined several package into a meta package to install an application. Later, I made an updater, again combined *.pkg in a *.mpkg. The updater contains changed and new items only. The Installer has always obsoleted files that were in the old package but not the new package, that is how upgrades work. There is no real support for an "updater" package, the only way to do it (and the way Apple does it for Software Updates, unfortunately) is to change the name of the package (for Panther) and the bundle identifier of the package (for Tiger). Note that previous to Tiger, the name of the package is what what made two packages the same (for upgrade behavior). As of Tiger, the Installer uses the bundle identifier. To be compatible with old packages which may not have expected the bundle identifier to be used, the name is also consulted if there are more then one package installed with the same bundle identifier (and if there is no bundle identifier). For most software projects, this automatic upgrade behavior is what they what, so it is the default behavior. This worked well on pre-Tiger systems. If the Installer shipped with Tiger is used for the update, all files installed by the original package but not contained in the update package are deleted. The application is completely ruined. The installer log of the updater contains lines talking about the removal of obsolete files. Who decides which files are obsolete? Shouldn’t that be the package author? Is it possible to prevent this kind of damage by other means than * putting everything into an updater, thus making it a full installer? * changing package names, thus damaging the idea of receipts? This email sent to site_archiver@lists.apple.com