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That of course assumes that the post-install scripts don't move files around. Mac OS has a similar utility called "pkgutil" which supposedly tracks all files be

by curt15 6y ago

That of course assumes that the post-install scripts don't move files around. Mac OS has a similar utility called "pkgutil" which supposedly tracks all files belong to programs that come as "pkg" files -- typically system utilities that don't make sense to ship as clickable bundles. But the pkgutil database is often useless. For example, the MacGPG installer used to "install" its files under "/tmp/private", but that was simply a temporary install directory which was immediately moved by a postinstall script to an untracked location.

ploxiln 6y ago
macOS has App Folders, since the beginning when it was call OS X, and they're kinda like GoboLinux, but even better! Just copy this folder anywhere and it runs stand-alone and self contained. But almost nothing is just a plain App Folder on macOS anymore. Starting over a decade ago, anything from Microsoft or Adobe or Google even Apple themselves, requires you to double-click run an installer that puts suspicious bits everywhere, just like on Windows. They want to auto-launch and auto-update and integrate and engage etc. And if you want to run Photoshop or Office or Chrome, what are you going to do, not let it install all its junk all over? Every regular person certainly will just let it, and all non-trivial companies will take maximum advantage. Skype and Office were automatically installing crappy Firefox extensions and stuff, so Firefox had to do some annoying complex extension-install-signing thing to try to prevent that ... This is why Apple and Microsoft went towards sandboxed App Stores. The user won't choose less-abusively-packaged software, but even Big Software Corp can feel pressure to get its app into the store and sandboxed. Linux distros never had this problem or needed this solution, because they re-package the software they distribute. If xscreensaver or calibra or virtualbox are programs people want to run, but their authors do annoying or dumb things, that can be patched by the distro packager, and the package manager file database will remain in quite good shape.
ilikepi 6y ago
It kinda seems like your example says more about the specific behavior of the MacGPG installer than about the general reliability of macOS's package database.

by curt15 6y ago

ploxiln 6y ago

macOS has App Folders, since the beginning when it was call OS X, and they're kinda like GoboLinux, but even better! Just copy this folder anywhere and it runs stand-alone and self contained. But almost nothing is just a plain App Folder on macOS anymore. Starting over a decade ago, anything from Microsoft or Adobe or Google even Apple themselves, requires you to double-click run an installer that puts suspicious bits everywhere, just like on Windows. They want to auto-launch and auto-update and integrate and engage etc. And if you want to run Photoshop or Office or Chrome, what are you going to do, not let it install all its junk all over? Every regular person certainly will just let it, and all non-trivial companies will take maximum advantage. Skype and Office were automatically installing crappy Firefox extensions and stuff, so Firefox had to do some annoying complex extension-install-signing thing to try to prevent that ... This is why Apple and Microsoft went towards sandboxed App Stores. The user won't choose less-abusively-packaged software, but even Big Software Corp can feel pressure to get its app into the store and sandboxed. Linux distros never had this problem or needed this solution, because they re-package the software they distribute. If xscreensaver or calibra or virtualbox are programs people want to run, but their authors do annoying or dumb things, that can be patched by the distro packager, and the package manager file database will remain in quite good shape.

ilikepi 6y ago

It kinda seems like your example says more about the specific behavior of the MacGPG installer than about the general reliability of macOS's package database.