![]() ![]() Take note of both the name of the mounted volume and the app itself ( Figure A). Start by mounting the application’s DMG file. ![]() For the purposes of this tutorial, I’ve chosen Google Chrome to model the creation process, but feel free to substitute for an app of your choice.Let’s jump right into the process below and create a deployable pkg file. The magical functionality necessary to create most packages is built right in to Terminal with the pkgbuild command, so there are no additional software licenses or costs. In keeping with the sysadmin theme, I’d like to touch on the topic of creating your own installer packages to deploy apps, settings, or even scripts–complete with paths to the destination and security permissions. But what happens when you use an alternative management suite that only supports PKG file types? Jesus Vigo reviews the steps necessary to create package-based installers to simplify the software deployment process for OS X.Ī management suite, such as Apple Remote Desktop, simplifies the deployment of software applications to all managed OS X devices. You may then manually copy those files to their destinations if you wish.How to use Terminal to create packages for software deployment The files in that directory hierarchy will illustrate to you where the OS X installer would install files on your system as if your "xxxx" directory was the root directory "/". In addition to your Archive.pax file you will now see a directory hierarchy probably containing one or more directories. ![]() (You must separate -r and -f, as -rf will not work)įinally, list the directory's contents again with ls -al. Gzip will tell you that it has replaced "" with "Archive.pax") Now list the directory's contents again to confirm this. Now there are two simple commands to enter: gunzip -v Now open Terminal.app and at the command line navigate to your new "xxxx" directory and list the directory's contents to confirm that your file is there: cd ~/Desktop/xxxx If the file is inside of read-only media you can just drag it to your "xxxx" folder without the Option key to create a copy. Option-drag a copy of the file into that new folder "xxxx" on your desktop. I usually name them "xxxx" or "zzzz" etc. This might give you an idea what extra things it's installing, at the very least it's some more information if you're untrusting of the package.Īfter you succeed in opening the package, look for the file that was mentioned earlier.Ĭreate a new empty folder on your desktop naming it whatever you wish. app in this archive, although dragging that to /Applications might leave it without frameworks it needs to run so you'll have to figure out which other files it needs and where it needs them to get it to work.Īdditionally, all packages can log messages, if you hit Cmd-L (or choose the Installer Log option from the Window menu, you can view them as they're generated. Most packages (I'm using Office 2008 here) also have an file, this contains everything that Installer will move into the various folders as instructed in the BOM file. This file contains a manifest of everything the package will install and where to to read this file, use the lsbom command. One is a BOM file (bill of materials) which gets turned into a receipt that you can use to uninstall the app. (Note: if you do not see Show Package Contents you will need to open Terminal.app and run pkgutil -expand mystubbornpackage.pkg path/to/expand) If you right click it, and click Show Package Contents you'll get a few files in a Contents folder. ![]()
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