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Mac Packaging Cheatsheet

Create a component pkg from a DMG

pkgbuild --component /Volumes/ApplicationName/*.app --install-location \
    /Applications ApplicationName-Version.pkg

Install pkg from command line

Create bootable USB drive from `InstallMacOSX.pkg`

Erase USB drive with Disk Utility using format Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and Master Boot Record and call it MyVolume
Use Finder to mount/open InstallMacOSX.dmg.
Run following commands:

pkgutil --expand /Volumes/Install\ OS\ X/InstallMacOSX.pkg /tmp/El\ Capitan
diskutil eject Install\ OS\ X
cd /tmp/El\ Capitan

BACKGROUND (WHY?)

I switch dev-environments every single year with each customer having their own setup. Git on Linux and MacOSX just works most of the time - there are some SSH keys needed to be setup, but "sudo apt-get" or "brew install" mostly does the trick.

Git for Windows is a box a sourcery, so when you install that you will get a version of slim MSYS2, MinGW64 and most importantly bash and git that runs from the bash. This is what you need 9 out of 10 times, if you ONLY need to use git to manage your source and then use other/external toolchains like VS Code, VS2022 or Windows Powershell or Command to compile your sh.ttt I mean stuff.

Then that 10th out of 10 times, you want to compile windows applications from the same terminal that you run git - just like you do on linux or OSX. If you are running Windows alone then having two terminals, one for git (with mingw64/msys2) and one for your ms whatever the compiler name is for C++.

UPDATE

Although below are methods to extract the contents of a macOS package without actually installing it, the best way might be to create a blank disk image and install the package to this disk image in order to inspect the package contents. To do so:

Open the Disk Utility app.
Choose "File > New Image > Blank Image". Alternatively, simply press CMD-N.
Set the parameters and click on "Save" to create the blank disk image.
After creation, it should be already mounted. If not, you can mount it by navigating to the directory that it is placed at and double clicking on the disk image file.
Run the package installer by double clicking on the package file.
Select this newly created blank disk image as the destination and install it.
If the script is preventing you from installing by saying, for example, "macOS isn't installed", you can:

	// Written (entirely) by a combination of o1, o3-mini, and claude 3.5 sonnet, with lots of human testing and trial-and-error.
	// This proxy will mitm https requests so that old apps on legacy versions of OS X can connect to modern https servers.

	// Unlike Squid, this proxy does not appear to cause issues with pip or websockets.
	// It does not require special rules for Apple domains to avoid breaking iMessage. It appears to be side effect free!

	// Also unlike Squid, this proxy uses OS X's System Trust store for remote certificate validation.
	// This is a good thing, but it means you probably want to manually add some modern certificates to Keychain Access,
	// such as ISRG Root X1 certificate and GTS Root R1.

	#!/bin/bash

	#!/bin/sh

	# Download script written by Wowfunhappy. Last updated 2025/03/07.
	# Thank you to Krackers, Jazzzny, and others for helping analyze Apple's download process and debug this script.
	# Thank you to dosdude1 for donating identifiers from a broken Mac.
	# Any mistakes are mine alone.

	BOARD_SERIAL_NUMBER="C0243070168G3M91F"

	# Make a self-signed private/public keypair usable for HTTPS, including SAN / Subject Alternative Name and CN / Common Name, non-interactively and without additional files

	# Parentheses around the command spin it up in a subshell so that the FQDOMAIN variable is local to execution and doesn't persist after it's created
	(FQDOMAIN="example.local" && openssl req -x509 -nodes -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout server_key.pem -keyform PEM -days 365 -subj "/CN=${FQDOMAIN}" -addext 'basicConstraints=CA:FALSE' -addext "subjectAltName=DNS:${FQDOMAIN}" -addext 'keyUsage=digitalSignature' -addext 'extendedKeyUsage=serverAuth' -out server_cert.pem -outform PEM 2>/dev/null)

	# Alternatively, if you're setting FQDOMAIN somewhere else, you can just run directly:
	openssl req -x509 -nodes -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout server_key.pem -keyform PEM -days 365 -subj "/CN=${FQDOMAIN}" -addext 'basicConstraints=CA:FALSE' -addext "subjectAltName=DNS:${FQDOMAIN}" -addext 'keyUsage=digitalSignature' -addext 'extendedKeyUsage=serverAuth' -out server_

	#!/bin/bash
	#
	# Script to build and run Arch Linux ARM in QEMU inside of Arch Linux (x86_64)
	#
	#
	# Original how-to and script from:
	# * https://gist.github.com/thalamus/561d028ff5b66310fac1224f3d023c12
	# * https://git.sr.ht/~whynothugo/m1-vm/tree/main/item/prepare.sh

	set -euo pipefail

	#!/usr/bin/env bash
	#===========================================================================
	# Works only with the official image available in the Mac App Store.
	# Make sure you download the official installer before running this script.
	#===========================================================================

	# Change this at your desire. Sometimes this works out of the box, sometimes not.
	# Default size: ~16 GB
	DISK_SIZE="15361m"

	# check wake requests
	pmset -g log \| grep "Wake Requests"

	# check wake logs
	pmset -g log \| grep darkwake

	# statistics
	pmset -g stats

	# check if powernap is enabled