How to create an installer package for a Mac application?

Question

How can I create one installer package for OSX binaries, as well as multiple configuration files and a script? The resulting folders look like this:

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

The installers are great if you want different things to be placed in different places - here, there is documentation, support files here, etc. They are also great for providing the ability to install (additional options) or manually holding for an unusual type of installation that the user may not otherwise understand, or additional work (configuration scripts, permission modifications, authentication, compatibility checking, etc.), which must be started during the installation process. There is nothing wrong with the installers, unlike the answer from @ d00dle, although there is nothing wrong with distributing your application through the App Store or as a dmg.

To set up my own installers, I highly recommend a program called Packages ( http://s.sudre.free.fr/Software/Packages/about.html ). I have nothing to do with this, but I use it to create an installer for the application I'm working on. It greatly smoothes the process of creating a complex installer and has an excellent GUI interface.

Answer 2

macOS (formerly known as OS X) usually does not use installers. Applications are packaged in application containers with the extension .app. This container is "executable", but you can also delve into and see what's inside. It is also a format distributed through the App Store.

You can create pkg or dmg "installers" if necessary, however this is clearly not what the apple aims to become standard. I would advise using the .app template, and any necessary scripts should be self-contained and executed on first run.

You can use .dmg to distribute your application outside the App Store (this is still pretty normal).

macOS also includes a terminal program called product builds that creates a product archive for the OS X installer or Mac App Store. Click this link on Mac to open the terminal's help page.