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Packaging Overview

Packaging is one of the processes that make up the Mac OS X software-delivery model. An installation package is a file package that contains product files (the payload), instructions on how to add them to a Mac OS X–based system, and information used to create an appropriate install experience for the user. When users open your installation packages, the Installer application guides them through the installation process, which ensures that their computer meets the installation requirements defined in the package before placing the payload on the user’s file system, among other tasks.

The installation package–based mechanism is the preferred method for delivering products in Mac OS X. This model is a change for experienced Mac OS X developers and packagers. Before Mac OS X v10.5 (Leopard), the preferred software delivery mechanism was the manual install, where users drag the product from its container, a disk image, onto their file system. However, managed installs (which are steered by the Installer application after the user opens an installation package) on Leopard clients make possible advanced installation-management features, such as better package management through the Installer package database, downloadable packages, and certificate-based signing. Leopard leverages these features to provide users an improved install experience.

There are two types of installation package: product packages and component packages. Product packages contain the payload for an entire product, either as a single component or distributed among several component packages. Component packages enclose a single component of a product and are generally contained within product packages. In addition, product packages can refer to external component packages through package references.

PackageMaker is the application you use to create installation packages. Figure 1-1 shows the packaging process within the software development-packaging-delivery-installation workflow. The rest of this document focuses on the packaging process.

To package a product you:

1. Identify and collect the product’s components

2. Create a PackageMaker project

3. Add the product’s components to the project

4. Configure component packages

5. Configure the product package

6. Define install options (in multicomponent products)

7. Build and test the product package

“Packaging Workflow” describes the packaging workflow in detail.

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