Since upgrading to macOS Sierra I can't update any thirdy-party app and have to uninstall/install updated app to keep it on the latest. I didn't have this issue with El Capitain.
The reason why I can't is that temp dir is unwriteable. One of the apps showed me this: Error: Could not create temporary directory: Permission denied.
Running echo $TMPDIR shows me /var/folders/h_/5_gcf0l53kx7qm0_f39tl9nw0000gn/T/. I changed almost everything regarding permissions there, including (but not limited to) chmod, nouappnd, and nouchg. I know Apple takes additional security measures regarding folder permissions rather than chmod but being initially a Linux user, I'm not sure which are nor which steps should I take to solve this problem.
I Tried following steps presented here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5275515?tstart=0 regarding home folder and tweaking for my issue, but it still persisted
Best Answer
This indicates that the permissions on that folder have become corrupted, or were changed by some other process. My suggestion would be to follow the directions in the link below, and reinstall Sierra from the Recovery Partition. Doing so, should reset the permissions on that folder, which should then allow you to successfully run the installer. Just make sure to pay attention to the part where they say, "Skip Step 2 because you will not be erasing your disk.".
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7715561?start=0&tstart=0