PKG uninstall?

Hi Ben

You can unisntall pkg or dmg as it simply removes all the files that are indexed

If you index and then in the pakcage option click allow unistall you can then uninstall via capser remote or policy

if you view the package in Casper Admin via the JSS web page yu can see all the files index

All capser does is remove those files, if other apps use the same files then it may prevent those apps from working

Criss

Criss Myers
Senior Customer Support Analyst (Mac Services)
iPhone / iPad Developer
Apple Certified Technical Coordinator v10.5
LIS Development Team
Adelphi Building AB28
University of Central Lancashire
Preston PR1 2HE
Ex 5054
01772 895054

I’ve also found you need to be careful with pkg installers because they will usually modify the /Library/Receipts/InstallHistory.plist file. It’ll blow that sucker away if you’re not careful.

j

Hey Criss

Ahhh I thought I might have been mistaken, im so used to using .dmg's over .pkgs. Thaks for the quick reply!

Thanks

Ben


Hi Criss,

How does Casper know if an installer overwrote (or merged) resources during the install process?

Don

That's what I want to know.
- JD

I usually just write an uninstall script that removes all needed files.

Yeah I make sure I remove that from my packages

Sent from my iPad

That was my point it doesn't Casper just lays down files, via pkg or dmg, and uninstall removes ems, there's no special logic in it, it just remove these files

Sent from my iPad

Understood. This is one of the reasons I rely on the traditional method of doing before/after snapshots. In CS2 days, Adobe used flat files to store license info, so there were merges to be aware of. Now that Adobe uses the FLEXnet license database, there's a limit to how effective our tools can be. Especially if you're deploying (as an example) Photoshop to someone who has Illustrator. Don

This may work fine for packages that admins have created themselves, but
On 7/20/10 12:21 PM, "Criss Myers" <cmyers at uclan.ac.uk> wrote:
third party .pkg files sometimes contain scripts that manipulate some
portion of the installation. Casper will have no way of determining what
the script has done and won't be able to undo that.

--

William Smith
Technical Analyst
Merrill Communications LLC
(651) 632-1492

Can you give an example of a post install script that will modify a package so much that when you index it in Casper Admin Casper cannot uninstall it? I am not saying this is not true, but I cannot think for the life of me one app in my enterprise that does that.

The one or two apps that may do that, come with their own uninstall scripts from the vendor anyway. I guess our tracking software from Absolute and filter from 8e6 do some funky things under-the-hood. So, in that case shouldn't any decent developer provide you with an uninstaller?

Thanks

Tom

I've honestly never examined how Microsoft Office or QuarkXPress, for
example, create their relicense files, but I believe both of these request
keys during the install to make their license files. Maybe they have a
pre-named file in their installer packages and just inject some text into
it, but I'd suspect more likely that these are handled by scripts creating
new files.

Office comes with a removal .app but I don't think Quark offers anything
that I've seen.

The point I'm trying to make is that .pkg installers can do more than just
place files. I wouldn't trust indexing a .pkg to generate a complete set
of files for removal.

--

William Smith
Technical Analyst
Merrill Communications LLC
(651) 632-1492

Adobe CS and CS2 installers wrote to existing files. Casper wouldn't be able to uninstall without breaking things.
Adobe CS3, CS4 and CS5, well, it gets worse as serial numbers are now written to a proprietary database. Casper uninstall would break things there too.
Any install that modifies existing files (appending, merging, etc.) would be a good example...Casper uninstall would break things. There's good reason Apple doesn't provide or support any kind of uninstall.

Don

Very true, but the inital question was regarding pkg's made with Composer not third-party pkgs

Personally i use only pkg's as i find them much faster than dmgs

Criss Myers
Senior Customer Support Analyst (Mac Services)
iPhone / iPad Developer
Apple Certified Technical Coordinator v10.5
LIS Development Team
Adelphi Building AB28
University of Central Lancashire
Preston PR1 2HE
Ex 5054
01772 895054

On 7/21/10 2:12 AM, "Criss  Myers" <CMyers at uclan.ac.uk> wrote: Very true, but the inital question was regarding pkg's made with Composer not third-party pkgs

Sorry, thought I'd made it known that I was distinguishing between an
admin's .pkg files and third party.

Personally i use only pkg's as i find them much faster than dmgs

Interesting. I do just the opposite but for similar reasons.

Actually, "faster" for me is when I move packages around between
distribution points. AFP over slower connections or high latency
connections tends to bog down on .pkg files when copying compared to .dmg
files.

I've never tested .pkg vs. .dmg to install the same files though. What
differences have you noticed?

--

William Smith
Technical Analyst
Merrill Communications LLC
(651) 632-1492

I found installing final cut 45gb via pkg faster than dmg

Sent from my iPad