Packaging for Apple Administrators

by Armin Briegel

The essential introduction for system administrators to using, analyzing and building installation package files (pkg) on macOS.

In this book you will learn:

How to work with packages, analyze them without installing and install them from the command line and remotely
How to inspect packages with the tools built into macOS and third-party tools
How to build your own packages, from simple packages to complex
How to use the tools for package creation and
customization from macOS and some third-party tools

Working with installation packages is a fundamental skill for any system administrator. Package files are versatile and used in many
ways, whether you use Jamf Pro (aka Casper), Munki, Filewave, LanRev, Apple Remote Desktop, or a different management system.

This book will introduce you to the installation package file format (pkg). It will give you many examples of various techniques and
strategies to build packages that will scale from small workgroups to large enterprise or school level deployments.
It also discusses larger concepts such as testing, scripting, and configuration management.

Table of Contents:

About this Book
Installation
Installing Packages
Inspecting Packages
Inspector Applications
Testing Package Installation
Building Packages
Building
Installation Scripts
Signing Packages
Payload-Free Packages
Re-Packaging
Re-Packaging Applications
Custom Installers
Configuration Files
Challenges
Configuration Profiles
Other Settings Files
Distribution Packages
What are Distribution Packages
Installation Choices
Building Distribution Packages
Installer Interface
Packaging Strategies
- Application Installation
- Configuration Files
Other Package Builders
- Munkipkg
- WhiteBox Packages
- Jamf Composer
Conclusion
Appendix
Legacy Package Formats

Genres: Apple

117 pages, ebook

Published November 14, 2016