Mac OS X for Unix Geeks

Packaging Tools

The following packaging options come with Mac OS X.

PackageMaker

Found in /Developer/Applications, PackageMaker can be used to create packages that are bundles consisting of all the items that the Mac OS X Installer (/Applications/Utilities) needs to perform an installation. PackageMaker can also create metapackages, which can be used to install multiple packages at the same time.

gnutar and gzip

The Unix tape archive tools (tar and gnutar; gnutar is preferred because it can handle longer pathnames) are used to bundle the directories and resources for distribution. GNU Zip (gzip) is used to compress the tar archives to make file sizes as small as possible. Using these tools is generally the simplest way to copy a collection of files from one machine to another.

Disk Copy

One of the easiest ways to distribute an application is to use Disk Copy (/Applications/Utilities) to create a disk image. You can use Disk Copy to create a double-clickable archive, which mounts as a disk image on the user’s desktop. From there, the user can choose to mount the disk image each time the application is run, copy the application to the hard drive (usually to the /Applications directory), or burn the image to a CD.

Each of these tools will be discussed separately in the sections that follow.