Installer (Mac OS X)

Infobox_Software
name = Installer



caption = Installer 3.0 under Mac OS X 10.5.0
developer = Apple Inc.
latest release version =3.0
latest release date = 2007-10-26
operating system = Mac OS X
genre = Package management system
license = Proprietary
website = [http://www.apple.com/ Apple.com]

Installer is an application included in Mac OS X (and in its progenitors OPENSTEP and NEXTSTEP) which extracts and installs files out of .pkg packages. It was created by NeXT, and is now maintained by Apple Inc. Its purpose is to help software developers create uniform software installers.

Installer resides at /Applications/Utilities/Installer.app on Macintosh computers running Mac OS X versions prior to 10.5, and launches when a package or metapackage file is opened. In Mac OS X v10.5 the Installer application is located at /System/Library/CoreServices/Installer.app. The installation process itself can vary substantially, as Installer allows developers to customize the information the user is presented with. For example, it can be made to display a custom welcome message, software license and readme. Installer also handles authentication, checks that packages are valid before installing them, and allows developers to run custom scripts at several points during the installation process.

There is also a command line version located at /usr/sbin/installer.

ee also

* List of installation software

Documentation

* [http://developer.apple.com/releasenotes/DeveloperTools/Installer.html Release Notes] for Installer
* [http://developer.apple.com/documentation/DeveloperTools/Conceptual/SoftwareDistribution/index.html Document] describing software distribution using Installer