http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.25/25.01/2501MacEnterprise-PackagingforDistribution/index.html
by Greg Neagle, MacEnterprise.org
Packing things up
Previously in MacTech, we looked at modifying Firefox in order to implement custom default preferences. This involved modifying several files inside the application bundle. If you made similar modifications for your environment, you'd then be faced with the next task: distributing the modified application to all your managed machines.
There are many ways to distribute software to Mac OS X machines, but most commercial products - Apple's and third-parties' - rely on Apple Installer packages to install and update software. This can be a convenient approach when the software you want to distribute is already packaged in that format, but you'll find there are several situations in which you need to create your own Installer packages:
1. The software is not distributed in Apple package format by the vendor, and your software distribution mechanism does not support the alternate format.
2. The vendor uses the Apple package format but the package will not install without user input - or, stated a different way, the package cannot be installed "silently".
3. You need to make changes in the files that are distributed, or distribute additional files.
4. You have internally-developed software that must be distributed. If you're lucky, your internal developer will package it for you. If you're not lucky, or you are the developer, then you need to do it.
Therefore, packaging software for distribution is a common task for OS X administrators. Fortunately, there are a lot of available tools to help you with this task.
Packaging Tools
A partial and by no means complete list of packaging and related tools for OS X in no particular order:
PackageMaker
This is Apple's utility for creating packages. It is available as part of the Xcode Tools, and also included with the Server Admin Tools. It can create every package format supported by Apple: old-style bundle packages, new-style flat packages, metapackages, distribution packages, and hybrid packages that work on multiple OS versions. The link above is for the 10.5.5 release of the Server Admin Tools; there may well be a newer release by the time this article reaches print.
Pros: PackageMaker is a supported Apple tool and is free. Many of the other tools rely on PackageMaker for at least some of their functionality.
Cons: It's hard to use, and had a history of buggy releases.
Iceberg
Iceberg is freeware by Stéphan Sudre, licensed with a BSD-style license. Capable and well-documented, Iceberg is very popular among Mac OS X administrators. It can create packages and metapackages, but not the newer distribution packages and flat packages.
Pros: Easy to use and free. It supports creation of packages from filesystem snapshots, as well as manual assembly of package contents.
Cons: Iceberg's installer installs a StartupItem that launches an always-on background task. This makes some admins uncomfortable.
LANrev InstallEase
LANrev, the maker of a cross-platform system management tool, recently made their InstallEase package creation utility freely available.
Pros: Ease of use, the ability to export Iceberg project files, and the creation of "uninstall" packages - packages that will uninstall software installed by another package. Creation of packages from filesystem snapshots.
Cons: It does not work standalone. To actually create packages, you must have Apple's PackageMaker and/or Iceberg installed as well.
Casper Composer SE
Composer is a $100 utility from JAMF Software. Part of the Casper Suite of OS X client management tools, Composer is also available separately. Casper Composer creates packages based on filesystem snapshots. When used with the Casper suite, it can create installation packages with extra abilities such as installing default preferences into users' home directories.
Pros: Easy to use. Good documentation.
Cons: It's not free. Casper Composer requires Apple's PackageMaker to build standard Apple packages. Composer's special package features work only with other tools in the Casper Suite.
Helpful tools:
logGen
logGen is freeware from the University of Michigan, by Phil Holland and Dave Pugh. It is a command-line utility for finding filesystem changes. You could use it as part of a package creation workflow together with pkgGen (described below) and PackageMaker.
pkgGen
This is a script by Zack Smith that parses the output of logGen and creates a "fauxroot" directory containing all the files and directories found by logGen. This fauxroot directory can then be used by PackageMaker or Iceberg to create an Installer package. The workflow would look something like:
- Run logGen to create a "before" snapshot.
- Install and configure software.
- Run logGen to create an "after" snapshot and differences list.
- Edit the differences list to remove unwanted items.
- Run pkgGen with the edited difference list to create a fauxroot directory with copies of all needed files and directories.
- Run PackageMaker and use the fauxroot directory to create your package.
Example Packaging Workflow
Let's use one of the tools to build an installation package for our modified Firefox. I'll use LANrev InstallEase for this example.
We'll start by assuming you already have an appropriately modified version of Firefox on your system, and have downloaded and activated a copy of InstallEase from LANrev's website.
Launch InstallEase.
