PKG Installer for mac

Suggestion from Jacob: convert app into pkg installer using this:

sudo pkgbuild --install-location /Applications --component /Volumes/LBRY\ 0.9.1/LBRY.app LBRY.pkg

[sprig]

I would like to add something;

It is correct that to add a system level daemon would require a pkg. However, I think that most often OSX computers are not used as headless servers but rather as workstations, and as such are usually logged in to a user almost all the time that they are working. Now, if the lbry daemon were to live in the taskbar (where apps like e.g. dropbox, google drive live while not “open” in an actual application view), it could be launched at user login - still without pgk required - and also managed more easily by users (i.e. without dropping to a shell).

[charlie-c]

adding Slack discussion on this with @lyoshenka

charlie-c [9:52 AM]

1. Do you really want a pkg installer rather than dmg? If so, what do you hope to gain?
2. Do you want the pkg installer to do the same thing as is currently done (App with embedded lbrynet-daemon), or do you want lbrynet-daemon handled more like a real daemon, i.e. separate from the app and managed by launchd (I presume on a per-user basis rather than a global daemon for all users).

charlie-c [9:53 AM] hope that makes some sense

grin [4:53 PM] to be honest, im not sure we want a pkg installer. several people have told me dmg is more standard and better in that it doesnt require root

[4:53] then again, there are upsides to pkg too, right?

[4:53] im much more of a linux dev

charlie-c [4:54 PM] that’s why I wanted to ask, as I saw the discussion on the github issue.

grin [4:54 PM] im open to hearing arguments for either side

charlie-c [4:55 PM] dmg has these advantages: very simple, everything is contained inside an App, which is just dragged into Applications area, so nothing to it really - uninstall is just assumed to be “delete the App”.

[4:56] pkg has these advantages: can do more complicated things, install different components to different places, libs, etc., daemons, and use the system level services to launch/kill/restart and otherwise maintain operation of the daemon.

grin [4:58 PM] we’d like the daemon to start on startup and run as a standalone process

[4:58] but this may be farther in the future

charlie-c [4:58 PM] on startup of… ??

[4:58] user login?

grin [4:58 PM] when you restart your laptop

[4:59] not sure if dmg/pkg affects that

charlie-c [4:59 PM] ok, so 2 things

[4:59]

1. yes, it does, you’d want a pkg installer for that so you can schedule the daemon with launchd.

[5:03] 2. I’m not familiar enough with libry, so don’t know how it does authentication, i.e. who is sending it json requests. If it is assumed to be the daemon owner (i.e. who started it), then it may not be suitable as-is for running on laptop startup, i.e. as root or an unprivileged user…

[5:04] what’s done on linux? does it run as a daemon at machine boot time?

grin [5:05 PM] no, that doesnt happen on any os right now. but we want that to happen in the future. im not exactly sure how i’d do it. it would either be through systemd or through however gnome does it

[5:06] there’s some support for authentication but its off by default and nothing uses it

[5:06] so the daemon just trusts any requests it gets right now

charlie-c [5:06 PM] yup, you can think of launchd on osx as similar in scope to systemd…

grin [5:06 PM] gotcha

charlie-c [5:09 PM] cool - I think that covers it for the moment - I’ll add this discussion to the issue if that’s ok with you, and it can be continued from there…

grin [5:09 PM] yes, that would be great

[5:09] i think that for now we’re fine keeping it a dmg, but we may want to switch to pkg in the future

[5:09] i really like that you don’t need root for dmg

[5:09] and that its simple

charlie-c [5:10 PM] yes, it is very simple, it’s designed for Apps with essentially no subcomponents (associated processes), i.e. standalone.

[5:11] I’m only raising the issue because I saw the bounty and thought it would be a nice little project to get my feet wet with lbry development, a first project…

[5:11] anyway, cheers for the help…