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Packages Changelog

What's new in Packages 1.2.9

Apr 13, 2020
  • Enh: Updated the CPU requirements UI to take into account new possible CPU configurations.
  • Enh: Updated the RAM requirements UI to take into account new possible RAM configurations.
  • Enh: Better support for Catalina/Mojave OS version numbers in the OS requirements UI.
  • Enh: Services Users and Groups are now hidden by default. They can be displayed through an option in the Files preferences pane.
  • Fix: An offset was incorrectly computed when preserving extended attributes and the com.apple.FinderInfo attribute was MIA. (Issue #65)
  • Fix: The identifier setter option of packagesutil was not working correctly. Thanks to v-sypayr for the report and investigation. (Issue #63)

New in Packages 1.2.8 (Jan 8, 2020)

  • Fix: Extended Attributes larger than 4096 Bytes were not correctly read. (Issue #57)

New in Packages 1.2.7 (Jan 8, 2020)

  • Enh: Support for trusted timestamp for CMS signatures (timestamps are required to notarize a package/distribution)
  • Enh: Improvements to prevent macOS Catavista from complaining too early in the build process.
  • Enh: Improvements to the Xcode project to remove some warnings when building with Xcode 10.
  • Enh: More accurate error reports when dealing with extended attributes (Thanks to Don M. for reporting the issue).
  • Fix: The SetUID, SetGID or Sticky bit could not be set correctly if the project was built on recent OS versions (Mojave, Catalina).

New in Packages 1.2.6 (Jan 8, 2020)

  • New: Spanish Localization (if you find localization errors, do not hesitate to report them)
  • New: It's now possible to define a destination name other than the source name for a real file system object in the Payload. (Advanced Mode)
  • New: It's now possible to define a folder other than ~ as the default location in the Project Assistant.
  • Enh: It's now possible to preserve the extended attributes of the files in the payload if Split Fork is enabled. (Advanced mode) (Issue #30)
  • Fix: Correctly take into account the "Check this requirement against each volume" option for JavaScript distribution requirements.
  • Fix: The name of a new project would not be taken into account in one case in the Project Assistant dialog.
  • Fix: Correctly restore the selection in the Payload hierarchy when the '/' row is selected.
  • Fix: Fix a bug in the Presentation > License pane when removing a custom localized license.
  • Fix: Correctly select the Installer plugin inspector when displaying the Presentation pane for the first time and the first step is an Installer plugin.

New in Packages 1.2.5 (Jan 8, 2020)

  • New: CMS signature support. This should help notarizing a distribution/flat package.
  • New: Dark Mode support first attempt.
  • Enh: Use labeled colors in UI whenever possible.
  • Enh: The contents of the menu of the popup button of the Presentation > Installation step closely matches the order of languages in the License step of Installer.app. (This could also be seen as a regression rdar://45713825 )
  • Enh: Switching the selected language through the popup button of the Presentation > Installation step switches the localization of the right part of the "window".
  • Fix: Fix some native language names.
  • Fix: The Introduction and ReadMe documents should have been rendered in Black & White on macOS Mojave in the Presentation tab to match what Installer.app does.
  • Fix: The list of documents for the Introduction, ReadMe, License and Summary panes was not sorted when needed.
  • Fix: The ReadMe and License text views were not resized appropriately in the Presentation tab.
  • Fix: Drag and dropping a document in the list of localized licenses could create a broken English entry if all supported localizations were already in the list.
  • Fix: The owner and group of symbolic links were not automatically set appropriately.
  • Fix: The domains XML entity could be added in cases it should not be.
  • Fix: A choice could disappear when performing multiple grouping in the Presentation > Installation Type step.
  • Fix: Duplicating a package within a distribution project would not work correctly if the payload pane has not been visited at least once. Many thanks to the user who reported this bug and the one above.
  • Fix: The background of some group views would not be rendered correctly when the window was resized.
  • Fix: Fix a crash that could occur when closing the "Must Close Applications" editor.

New in Packages 1.2.4 (Jan 8, 2020)

  • New: Support for Natural Layout Direction for background image
  • New: Support for defining a light and dark versions for the background image of distributions.
  • Enh: Improves the POSIX permissions for the Projects and Licenses templates.
  • Enh: Improves the POSIX permissions for some .plist file in the application bundle.
  • Enh: Accessory view for switching reference type from the open dialog when adding/choosing a pre/post-installation script.
  • Enh: Adds an Info.plist to the packages_builder binary to deal with the new privacy dialogs.
  • Enh: Workarounds for regressions in macOS Mojave UI when it comes to NSTableRowView.
  • Fix: Having an empty path set for a Welcome document would raise an exception when showing the Presentation pane.
  • Fix: Switching the Path type of the pre and post-installation scripts using the pop-up button would not update the path value.
  • Fix: When first displayed, the name of the script would be grayed and the Modified date would not be set for bundle scripts.
  • Fix: The "Must Close Applications" checkbox action is now correctly set in the French localization.
  • Fix: Handle error code 40 correctly in the build logs. (Issue #23)
  • Fix: Fixed a typo in the French localization of error messages.
  • Fix: Fixed a layout issue in the French localization of a panel.
  • Fix: Handle errors related to untrusted or expired certificates in the build logs.
  • Fix: The default required values for the domains advanced options could not be set in the distribution file if all the values were not set in the .packproj file.
  • Fix: It was not possible to select macOS 10.12.6 as the minimum or maximum version. (Issue #25)
  • Fix: Selecting an Installer Plugin step in the presentation step was not displaying the appropriate information if multiple plugins were used.

New in Packages 1.2.3 (Jan 8, 2020)

  • New: Advanced build option to treat missing payload files as warnings.
  • New: Standard Folders can now be updated in existing projects in order to reflect the latest permissions defined by the latest known macOS version.
  • New: Quick Builds can now be signed.
  • New: Add Latvian as a possible language for the Presentation documents.
  • Enh: Support for https:// urls as location references for remote packages.
  • Enh: Improved drop support for the Location section.
  • Enh: File names in the Payload list are now sorted exactly as in the Finder.
  • Enh: Copyright end date for the license PDF document in the About Box has been bumped.
  • Enh: Add the Audio, ColorPickers and Fonts standard folders to the Hidden Folder Hierarchy (which can be revealed via cmd - .)
  • Enh: Quotes and other things changed for French localization.
  • Enh: Use a flat icon for the Installer Plugin inspector.
  • Enh: Add more error descriptions.
  • Fix: Implemented workarounds for 2 bugs in Apple's code when it comes to supported embedded package names.
  • Fix: Set the supplemental groups in packages_builder.
  • Fix: The "Overwrite directory permission" checkbox for the Settings pane of Raw Package projects now works correctly.
  • Fix: The key equivalent for the OK button of the Choice Requirement panel has been set back.
  • Fix: The bottom padding of the Options section of the Settings pane of a referenced package in a distribution project was incorrect. (Issue #20)
  • Fix: The Location textfield was not taking into account text changes.
  • Fix: Add the sticky bits to the /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools standard folder in the default payload hierarchy.
  • Fix: Clicking the OK button in the Must-Close application panel would not take into account the value of the text field if it was still being edited.
  • Fix: Workaround for a bug in NSPopUpButton that was visible in the Presentation Inspectors on OS X 10.10 at least.
  • Fix: Switching back and forth between the Comments pane and another one would duplicate the comments text.
  • Fix: An exception was raised on Mac OS X 10.8 when editing the Must Close applications list.
  • Fix: An error description was not correctly localized in the application.
  • Fix: Reinstalling Packages while Packages was running would prevent the Build command from working upon completion of the installation with opened documents.

New in Packages 1.2.2 (Jan 8, 2020)

  • New: It's now possible to require some applications to be closed before installing a package within a distribution (Mac OS X 10.7 or later). (Issue #1).
  • New: It's now possible to set the product-id and version of a distribution using the Advanced Options. (Issue #15)
  • New: It's now possible to define a range of versions for the OS requirement.
  • Enh: Added new behaviors for build results (User Notification, Vocal Announcement, Bouncing icon in Dock).
  • Enh: Improved error reporting for issues related to certificates.
  • Enh: Added a new "Creation of xar archive" in the build log.
  • Enh: Avoid writing some JavaScript comments when there's no JavaScript code to write in the distribution.
  • Enh: Double-clicking a choice requirement enters edition mode.
  • Fix: The build duration was incorrectly reported outside of verbose mode.(Issue #14)
  • Fix: Fixed a bug where the contents of the payload would not be displayed or the application would crash when a uid or gid was not defined on the computer.
  • Fix: Fixed some minor layout issue in the French localization due to Helvetica Neuneue.
  • Fix: Having an empty value for the build folder path would raise an exception.
  • Fix: Fixed a typo in the English localization of the CPU requirement.
  • Fix: Fixed a minor cosmetic issue where the Project row could be drawn in red in some cases.
  • Fix: Fixed a bug causing the raise of an exception when double-clicking the Requirements list when it's empty.

New in Packages 1.2.1 (Jan 3, 2018)

  • New: Added a license template for the Unlicense license.
  • Enh: Moved away from the CoreCarbon copy files API.
  • Enh: Improved the phrasing of some log entries.
  • Enh: Improved support for Locked files.
  • Enh: Uses an absolute path in the ReadMe file.
  • Enh: Basic Copy support for log entries.
  • Enh: Improved the layout of the build status label at the bottom of the document windows.
  • Enh: Integrated the xar bug fixes from the High Sierra sources.
  • Enh: Improved the rendering of the fake Presentation window for macOS 10.11 and earlier.
  • Fix: Fixed the Project template name for Distributions.
  • Fix: The bundle identifier for the "Result of External Script" requirements was not compatible with requirements created with Packages 1.1.3 and earlier. This is now fixed.
  • Fix: Fixed a bug where symbolic links at the root of the disk would not be copied during the assemble payload phase. (Issue #7)
  • Fix: Fixed some log entries that were missing a parameter or not using the correct parameter value. (Issue #12)
  • Fix: Fixed some not-public-yet options related to warnings.
  • Fix: Avoided build failures when the same external resource is used in two or more "Result of External Script" requirements. (Issue #10)
  • Fix: Fixed a bug in the goldin tool.

New in Packages 1.2 (Oct 7, 2017)

  • New: Support for macOS Sierra and High Sierra.
  • New: Support for Hindi.
  • New: Support for APFS volumes.
  • New: Packages.app is now localized in French.
  • New: Source code is available on github.
  • Enh: Entire code has been modernized (Objective-C 2.x, ARC, View Controllers, XPC, NSCollectionView, View-based NSTableView, etc.).
  • Enh: Installer Plugin inspector lists the version of the plugin.
  • Enh: Improved handling of corrupted project files.
  • Enh: The JavaScript requirement editor does its best to avoid having the Cancel and OK buttons hidden below the bottom of the screen.
  • Enh: Improved and more accurate look for the simulated Installer window in the Presentation tab.
  • Enh: Takes into account the most recent OS versions in the OS requirement options.
  • Enh: Custom Project templates support custom assistant steps via plugins.
  • Enh: Uses accessory views in standard open panels to improve the workflow.
  • Enh: Makes the license templates keywords easier to spot in the document.
  • Fix: Fixed the deprecated APIs issue when signing a package or distribution directly with Packages on macOS Sierra and later.
  • Fix: Fixed the blocking issue when opening a project on macOS High Sierra.
  • Fix: Fixed the blocking issue during the split fork phase of the build on APFS volumes.
  • Fix: Fixed a bug in the xar library to correctly set the xar toc FinderCreateTime values. Thanks to T. T for the solution.
  • Fix: Fixed a bug when importing a flat package within a bundle distribution.

New in Packages 1.1.3 (Oct 7, 2017)

  • New: Added the /Library/Extensions folder to the default payload hierarchy.
  • New: Moved the /System/Library and /Applications/Utilities folders to the advanced payload hierarchy to take into account El Capitan's "No trespassing" signs.
  • Enh: Took into account the most recent OS versions in the OS requirement options.
  • Enh: Updated the reference to the Installer JavaScript Reference documentation.
  • Enh: Removed the ugly vibrant effect Apple tries to enforce in source lists.
  • Fix: Fixed a problem with the most recent OS versions when the installation domain is the current user's home folder.
  • Fix: Fixed a crash when closing the requirement editor after displaying the JavaScript requirement pane.
  • Fix: Fixed the issue that prevented to reference a package by its identifier in the packagesutil command line tool.
  • Fix: Fixed an issue with the goldin command line tool on Yosemite and later.
  • Fix: The Success picture was not displayed in the Summary presentation pane of Packages on Yosemite and El Capitan.

New in Packages 1.1.2 (Oct 7, 2017)

  • New: Support for Indonesian, Malay and Vietnamese.
  • New: Check for available updates automatically.
  • New: Ability to duplicate choices requirements.
  • New: Ability to drag and drop choices requirements between 2 projects.
  • Enh: Improved "downgradability" dependencies support.
  • Enh: Support for framework bundle versioning.
  • Enh: Take into account the most recent OS versions in the OS requirement options.
  • Enh: Correctly detects a server flavor of the OS for Mac OS X v10.7 and later.
  • Enh: Modernization of a few parts of the code.
  • Fix: Fixed the problem with the Presentation pane on OS X Yosemite.
  • Fix: If a missing file in the payload of a project is causing a build to fail, the error will now report which file is seen as missing.
  • Fix: If the minSpec advanced options of a distribution project was unwillingly changed and kept empty, building a distribution was creating an incorrect distribution. This is not the case anymore.
  • Fix: Do not display the "Base" language in the Simulator language popup menu on OS X v10.9 and later.
  • Fix: Fixed a typo.
  • Fix: Fixed a rendering issue with the gutter of the JavaScript editor.
  • Fix: Fixed a crash that occurred when editing a JavaScript requirement multiple times.
  • Fix: Fixed a crash that occurred when removing a package when its name was being edited.
  • Fix: Building a distribution without any localized string (title, choice name, etc.) was not possible.
  • Fix: Removing a pre-installation or a pre-installation script was not setting back the default path reference type.