Mac OS X administrators frequently need to build installer packages to
help deploy and manage software on a network of Macs. The motive for
creating a package is one of
* Packaging software that does not have a dedicated installer. This applies
to all the nice drag-and-drop applications like [Firefox][firefox] and
[Cyberduck][cyberduck].
* Packaging your own site’s software, whether that is as simple as printer
descriptions or as complex as a full-blown application.
* Re-packaging some miserable piece of shit installer that either totally
denies the harsh reality of Apple’s non-cross platform installer formats or
which manages to make such a balls of an install package that you were
better off before they bothered.
[Most everything by Adobe is in this category][adobeinstallers].
The first of those three is very common, and it ought to be easy to
create packages for existing installed applications.
[Apple’s PackageMaker][packagemaker] application provides a nice interface
for creating packages, but it has two drawbacks:
* PackageMaker is not installed by default on Mac OS X (it gets intalled as
part of the Developer Tools).
* Before PackageMaker 3 (part of Xcode 3, which requires Mac OS X 10.5)
there was no *simple* method for quickly packaging an installed application.
What I want is a package creation tool that works on a 10.4 system without
requiring the developer tools and which can be scripted. The `packagemaker`
command-line tool requires an existing `Info.plist` file or `.pmdoc` file
if you want to set a custom default installation directory – not the end
of the world, but tedious.
Useful links
————
* [Iceberg][iceberg] is an excellent graphical tool for building packages, by
Stéphane Sudre who also wrote up the…
* [PackageMaker how-to][pmhowto] which is a very useful introduction to the
details of `.pkg` files. Bit out-of-date these days.
* Man pages for the command-line [packagemaker][man1pm] and for the
[installer][installer] tools.
* Apple’s [software distribution documentation][softdist], which is very
quiet on the subject of custom installer plug-ins. Xcode has a template
project for an installer plugin, and the `InstallerPlugins.framework` headers
have lots of information.
* [Installer-dev mailing list][installerdev], where the people who wrote
the tools and documentation help out a lot.
* [JAMF Composer][composer] which is part of the Casper management tools.
Version 7 is no longer free.
[firefox]: http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
[cyberduck]: http://cyberduck.ch/
[packagemaker]: http://developer.apple.com/DOCUMENTATION/DeveloperTools/Conceptual/PackageMakerUserGuide/index.html
[adobeinstallers]: http://blogs.adobe.com/OOBE/
[iceberg]: http://s.sudre.free.fr/Software/Iceberg.html
[pmhowto]: http://s.sudre.free.fr/Stuff/PackageMaker_Howto.html
[man1pm]: http://developer.apple.com/DOCUMENTATION/DARWIN/Reference/ManPages/man1/packagemaker.1.html
[installer]: http://developer.apple.com/DOCUMENTATION/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man8/installer.8.html
[softdist]: http://developer.apple.com/documentation/DeveloperTools/Conceptual/SoftwareDistribution
[installerdev]: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/installer-dev
[composer]: http://www.jamfsoftware.com/products/composer.php