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installer -showChoicesXML not working

  • January 16, 2019
  • 2 replies
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AVmcclint
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I'm trying to create a choices.xml file for installing specific components of a .pkg. I've used the installer -showChoicesXML command in the past and it worked just fine. I tried doing it today under High Sierra (for the first time) and it tells me showChoicesXML is an invalid option.

$ installer ‑showChoicesXML ‑pkg /path/to/file.pkg
installer: invalid option ‑showChoicesXML
Usage: installer [-help] [-dominfo] [-volinfo] [-pkginfo] [-allowUntrusted] [-dumplog]
                 [-verbose | -verboseR] [-vers] [-config] [-plist]
                 [-file <pathToFile>] [-lang <ISOLanguageCode>] [-listiso]
                 [-showChoicesXML] [-applyChoiceChangesXML <pathToFile>]
                 [-showChoicesAfterApplyingChangesXML <pathtoFile>]
                 -pkg <pathToPackage>

even though it is right there in the Usage. Am I missing something? Did something change in High Sierra?

Best answer by chriscollins

@AVmcclint It's because (according to your copy and paste) your dash for the option is not a regular dash. I am guessing you have the smart quotes/dash option turned on under the Text tab under keyboard in System Preferences. If you look at the dashes in the Usage output and compare how much smaller it is in the prompt where you typed it you can see they are different.

    2 replies

    C
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    • chriscollins
    • Honored Contributor
    • Answer
    • January 17, 2019

    @AVmcclint It's because (according to your copy and paste) your dash for the option is not a regular dash. I am guessing you have the smart quotes/dash option turned on under the Text tab under keyboard in System Preferences. If you look at the dashes in the Usage output and compare how much smaller it is in the prompt where you typed it you can see they are different.

    AVmcclint
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    • AVmcclint
    • Author
    • Esteemed Contributor
    • January 17, 2019

    I don't have smart quotes/dash turned on, but you are right about the dashes being different. When I do a direct copy/paste from the Usage section, that dash works. Good thing I know how to press Option+(dash) to make the longer dash. I think the technical typographic terms are em-dash and en-dash. It's still weird that Apple would require such odd options for a command.

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