MacOS – Workflow/tools for installing command line application on OS X (Yosemite or later)

command lineinstallmacos

I maintain a set of command line bioinformatics tools which we distribute as source and binaries for Linux, Windows, and OS X. Currently the binary distribution for OS X is just a zip file containing directories for the binaries and the documentation. Our install guide directs the user to unzip the archive, copy the binaries to the desired location, and update their PATH to point to the binaries. That's fine for the command line savvy users, but some users have never heard of /usr/local/bin let alone PATH. We'd love to have an installer that's in more of the OS X idiom.

Creating an application bundle doesn't seem to do the trick because our tools are strictly command line and they'll need a terminal session to use them. It seems like we could have used PackageMaker to create an installer, but that's now deprecated.

Is there a current standard installer for command line tools on OS X, preferably one with CPACK support?

Best Answer

The standard package format is the "pkg" format. It's not often used for applications, but it's fine for a terminal-only utility.

My go-to tool for creating packages is called Packages.
I haven't used it myself, but it looks like CMake supports PackageMaker, which is a third party tool for creating OS X packages.
There's also the built-in pkgbuild utility.

Just make sure you don't touch anything outside the standard paths (/Library, /Applications, or /usr/local/) and you'll be fine.

Related Solutions

Package command line tools into an automator script or app

If you are looking to install some common command line tools which are not included in Mac OS X, you might have some success in the Rudix program, which offers pre-compiled versions of many utilities in a ready-to-install DMG/pkg format.

Rudix: The hassle-free way to get Unix programs on Mac OS X

MacOS – How to install the Command Line Tools completely from the command line

Wish I could claim credit for this one, but I found it buried in https://github.com/chcokr/osx-init/blob/master/install.sh

This worked on my 10.10 headless VM without a logged in UI. Updates applied for compatibility with at least 10.9-10.14

touch /tmp/.com.apple.dt.CommandLineTools.installondemand.in-progress;
PROD=$(softwareupdate -l |
  grep "\*.*Command Line" |
  head -n 1 | awk -F"*" '{print $2}' |
  sed -e 's/^ *//' |
  tr -d '\n')
softwareupdate -i "$PROD" --verbose
rm /tmp/.com.apple.dt.CommandLineTools.installondemand.in-progress

This presumes you only have 1 result to softwareupdate -l | grep "\*.*Command Line" - if this returns multiple versions, you might need more specific logic. (I dont have a repro case)

one variation that seems to work (limited testing) on 10.10-10.14 (10.9 doesn't return an osx version number in the cli tools name..so this doesn't work there):

PROD=$(softwareupdate -l |
 grep "\*.*Command Line.*$(sw_vers -productVersion|awk -F. '{print $1"."$2}')" |
 head -n 1 | awk -F"*" '{print $2}' |
 sed -e 's/^ *//' |
 tr -d '\n')

a few example results:

* Command Line Tools (OS X Mavericks)-6.2
* Command Line Tools (OS X 10.10) for Xcode-7.2
* Command Line Tools (macOS El Capitan version 10.11) for Xcode-8.2
* Command Line Tools (macOS High Sierra version 10.13) for Xcode-10.1
* Command Line Tools (macOS Mojave version 10.14) for Xcode-10.1

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Package command line tools into an automator script or app

MacOS – How to install the Command Line Tools completely from the command line

Related Question