How can i create a .pkg mac installer for my binary?

Question

I have a binary file, foo. Built using vercel/pkg.

I would like to bundle this in an installer for mac; A .pkg installer file.

It should install the binary in /usr/local/bin/foo.

Attempt:

$ cd Desktop // <--- foo binary is here
$ pkgbuild --identifier com.foo.pkg --install-location ./usr/local/bin/ --root ./ foo.pkg

This creates a .pkg file: foo.pkg on my desktop. And when i run foo.pkg, it installs the foo binary in /usr/local/bin correctly, except that it also leaves foo.pkg in /usr/local/bin also.

How can make pkgbuild avoid leaving foo.pkg inside /usr/local/bin?

Answer 1

When you pass --root, it takes everything in that folder and bakes it into the package. You're running pkgbuild in the root that you're building - it seems very likely that you have a copy of foo.pkg on your desktop that was created by an earlier run of pkgbuild. When you run it again, the old foo.pkg is now built into the new package.

Instead, point --root at a directory only containing the files you wish to package.

Otherwise, use --analyze to generate a component list of your root directory. Customize the resulting .plist as necessary (specifying the files you want to include and associated options), then feed it back into pkgbuild with --component-plist.

You should read the man page if you haven't already.