It’s not very difficult to create a real installer for Mac OS X using Apple’s PackageManager. This can even be done from the command-line. So, instead of the somewhat weird binary tarballs, we can provide real packages, including an installer.

Resources
———
Main Apple Documentation:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/DeveloperTools/Conceptual/SoftwareDistribution/

Description of the info and description file formats:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/DeveloperTools/Conceptual/SoftwareDistribution/Concepts/sd_pkg_flags.html

Command-line PackageManager tool is available at:
/Developer/Applications/Utilities/PackageMaker.app/Contents/MacOS/PackageMaker

Other useful articles on the web:
http://s.sudre.free.fr/Stuff/PackageMaker_Howto.html
http://rmn.ulaval.ca/manuals/oreilly/mac/ch06_04.htm
http://www.macdevcenter.com/lpt/a/4193

Submitted on 2 June 2006 at 13:25