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Re: [platform-dev] MacOS .dmg vs .tar.gz
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A .dmg is an installer.
Small correction (according to my limited macOS knowledge): a .dmg is no
installer but some kind of "iso" image that can be mounted easily.
Dragging the application inside that image to /Applications is the
default "installation" for most GUI applications on macOS. Other
applications, e.g. Git, really have an installer (.pkg file) which when
run shows some kind of wizard.
Problem with .dmg files is that some users mount it and launch the
application from inside. Then apptranslocation also happens and causes
weird stuff.
Cheers,
Tom
On 2020-10-13 19:48, Homer, Tony wrote:
A .dmg is an installer. In the case of the Eclipse macOS installer, I imagine it mostly just extracts the archive and moves it into the Applications folder.
Originally I was going to say that it wouldn’t be unreasonable to publish a .tar.gz for macOS but thanks Mikael Barbero for calling out https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=507328. The comments are very informative and the (accidentally) linked article (https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/app-translocation.html) is interesting as well.
Based on reading all of that, I think it would be best to stick with .dmg.
Providing instructions with a .tar.gz to drag the bundle into /Applications would take care of the issue if users actually read it and heed the warning ☺
But my guess is most people would extract the .tar.gz and run it from ~/Downloads without reading anything, then get into trouble and be mad/sad.
Liviu, thanks for linking to your package page which has the instructions, but according to one of the comments removing that flag was not enough:
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=507328#c15
Maybe things have improved since Sierra, but even so, for most users it seems like moving the bundle out of Downloads would be preferable to changing file attributes.
Tony Homer
From: <platform-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf of Mikael Barbero <mikael.barbero@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: "Eclipse platform general developers list." <platform-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tuesday, October 13, 2020 at 10:45 AM
To: "Eclipse platform general developers list." <platform-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [platform-dev] MacOS .dmg vs .tar.gz
I always released my macOS package as a .tar.gz and they work very well. Just that you have to remove the quarantine attribute added by the browser after download:
https://projects.eclipse.org/projects/iot.embed-cdt/downloads
You're right, it can also be done this way. However, to offer a seamless experience to the end users, one have to deliver a .dmg (or .pkg).
Mikaël Barbero
Manager — Release Engineering and Technology | Eclipse Foundation
🐦 @mikbarbero
Eclipse Foundation<http://www.eclipse.org/>: The Platform for Open Innovation and Collaboration
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