Details
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Sub-task
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Resolution: Unresolved
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P3: Somewhat important
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None
Description
Relevant tools:
- packagemaker (separate download from Xcode in recent versions)
- pkgutil - query and manipulate macOS Installer packages and receipts
- pkgbuild - builds an macOS Installer component package from on-disk files
- productbuild - builds a product archive for the macOS Installer or the Mac App Store
- productsign - sign an macOS Installer product archive
packagemaker is deprecated in favor of pkgbuild/productbuild.
"Component packages" created with pkgbuild can be installed on their own, but are typically incorporated into a product archive, along with a "distribution" and localized resources.
A product archive is a flat file with a .pkg extension, created with productbuild.
There's also a VERY nice GUI called Packages (http://s.sudre.free.fr/Software/Packages/about.html, BSD licensed), a sort of unofficial replacement for PackageMaker This could possibly be recommended to end users in the Qbs documentation as a means to author their macOS Installer configuration files, though it uses its own project description file and generates the native ones as part of its build process. It does have a command line tool so perhaps we could support it.