How can I keep Installer from relocating packages?

If there's another version of our app on the volume, it'll relocate the installed one there. This is particularly delightful, since nothing will work if it's not in /Applications.

We use pkgbuild and productbuild to create the .pkg file.

Answered by ssmith_c in 776159022

It is possible to use pkgbuild without --component-plist, it looks like you are doing that. If you want more control, run pkgbuild with the --analyze option, then edit the template plist to your liking (this is where you could make the app bundle non-relocatable), and subsequently use pkgbuild with --component-plist.

It has been forever since I did this, so this is as far as I think I could assist. I hope it helps.

Does your component.plist contain

<key>BundleIsRelocatable</key>
		<true/>

If so, changed it to <false/>.

I thought this (BundleIsRelocatable=true) meant that the user can change the destination. In fact, it means that the Installer can relocate the bundle to the location of a previously-installed bundle, rather than put it at RootRelativeBundlePath

I don't think we have the .plist file. We use

    pkgbuild --identifier org.${PRODUCT}.${VERSION} \
    --version ${VERSION} \
    --scripts "${TARGET_DIRECTORY}/darwin/scripts" \
    --root "${TARGET_DIRECTORY}/darwinpkg" \
    ${TARGET_DIRECTORY}/package/${PRODUCT}.pkg > /dev/null 2>&1
    productbuild --distribution "${TARGET_DIRECTORY}/darwin/Distribution" \
    --resources "${TARGET_DIRECTORY}/darwin/Resources" \
    --package-path "${TARGET_DIRECTORY}/package" \
    "${TARGET_DIRECTORY}/pkg"/$1 > /dev/null 2>&1
Accepted Answer

It is possible to use pkgbuild without --component-plist, it looks like you are doing that. If you want more control, run pkgbuild with the --analyze option, then edit the template plist to your liking (this is where you could make the app bundle non-relocatable), and subsequently use pkgbuild with --component-plist.

It has been forever since I did this, so this is as far as I think I could assist. I hope it helps.

Finally did that, experimented with trimmed down the .plist file to only have the minimal keys, and voila, Bob's my uncle! Thank you 😄

How can I keep Installer from relocating packages?
 
 
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