What is recommended way to pass config into the macOS installer?

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Created Feb ’21

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We have an installer pkg for macOS that can be installed using the command line and that works pretty well.

We want to add the ability to set a few options at install time. Based on the man page of the installer, it does not look like we can pass any arguments into the installer command.

Is there a recommended way to pass a config file/user options when installing using an installer pkg?

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Answer 1

jonthompson OP

Feb ’21

Installer has the ability to read and apply the the choices... From the manpage:

-showChoiceChangesXML
   Prints to stdout the install choices for the package (specified with -pkg) in an XML format. This allows choice attributes to be modified and applied at install-time using -applyChoiceChangesXML. See CHOICE CHANGES FILE for details of this XML format.

-applyChoiceChangesXML pathToXMLFile
   Applies the install choice changes specified in pathToXMLFile to the default choices in the package before installation. This allows the command-line installer to customize choice what gets installed. See CHOICE CHANGES FILE for details of this XML format. Any problems encountered while applying the choice changes will be reported to the LOG_INSTALL facility (i.e. to /var/log/install.log), and also to stdout if -dumplog is used.

   -showChoicesAfterApplyingChangesXML pathToXMLFile
   Applies the install choice changes specified in pathToXMLFile to the default choices in the package, and then dumps the resulting choice state to stdout. The input and output XML format is as described in CHOICE CHANGES FILE. Since changing one choice in a package can implicitly change other choices, this option allows you to confirm that a particular choiceChanges file will have the intended effect. You must specify a -target when using this option, since the evaluated choices can also change with the state of the target disk.

   -showChoicesXML
   Prints to stdout the install choices for the package (specified with -pkg) in a hierarchical XML format. This is not the same format as used with -applyChoiceChangesXML. This option is provided for System Image Utility only.

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