Mac OS X Unleashed

Mac OS X Unleashed

By John Ray and William C. Ray

Installing Software

Although there is no definitive installation technique used by all software on Mac OS X, there are two common methods that you will use repeatedly. Obviously, for any software, you should read the documentation that comes with it; but for those who are anxious to double-click, it's good to know what to expect.

Keep in mind when installing applications that other users on the computer do not implicitly have access to your home directory. If you install a large application in your home directory, it will be accessible only by you. This can lead to multiple users installing copies of the same application throughout the system. To best utilize disk space and resource sharing, applications should be installed in the Applications directory or within a subdirectory of Applications.

Caution

Be sure to read your software license agreements regarding operation by multiple users. If an application is only licensed for a single user (rather than a single computer), it should not be placed in Applications where any Mac OS X user can have access. If placed there, you should have its ownership and permissions adjusted appropriately.

Disk Images

The vast majority of Mac OS X applications are appearing using the .dmg file format and a simple drag-and-drop installation. Double-clicking a disk image will launch the Disk Utility application (see Chapter 6, "Native Utilities and Applications.") and mount the virtual disk on your computer. Some disk images contain a double-clickable installer, but most enable the user to drag the application from the image directly to the location where the user wants to store it.

Note

Unlike earlier versions of the Mac OS, you cannot drag the mounted disk icon directly to another drive. This will result in a permissions error. Instead, create a new folder on the Mac OS X drive, select all the items within the disk image, and drag them to the folder.

Apple's Installer (.mpkg/.pkg Files)

The Apple installer provides a simple step-by-step installation system for installing package and multi-package files (.pkg/.mpkg)—in fact, it is the same installation application used to set up the Mac OS X operating system itself. The Installer application does not offer an uninstall option, but does save a Bill of Materials (BOM) that can be used to determine what files were modified during installation. Unfortunately, the Installer application has a bug that might cause serious errors to occur depending on your system configuration and type of package being installed.

Although using the Installer is sometimes unavoidable, users should be sure to read the installation instructions for warnings and make sure that critical data is backed up first.

Note

A discussion on the Installer's problems and the conditions under which they occur can be found at www.stepwise.com/Articles/Technical/Packages/InstallerOnX.html.

Other Distribution Methods

There are a number of developer packages for creating software installers under Mac OS X. The operation of these applications is virtually identical to Mac OS 8 or 9, so most users will be able to keep on working exactly as they have been.

If you encounter .tar, .Z, or .gz files that do not unarchive correctly with StuffIt Expander or do not contain a GUI installer, turn to Chapter 12, "Introducing the BSD Subsystem," for information on working with Unix applications within the BSD subsystem.

Share ThisShare This

Informit Network