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MacOS Overview

Applies to
Windows
MacOS
Linux

MacOS specific notes about creating and using Velopack packages.

For Mac, applications are distributed as .app bundles. These are special folders that appear in Finder like a single file.

Packaging​

If you are creating a custom bundle, you can provide a folder ending in .app to the --packDir / -p argument, Velopack will copy and use this directly. If you do not wish to create the .app bundle manually, Velopack can do this for you, so just supply any other folder (which does not end in .app) to the --packDir argument.

If you wish for Velopack to automatically create a bundle, the only additional argument you need to provide is --icon, and this must be a valid .icns file.

warning

Code signing and notarization is required by Apple before shipping your releases to users, or your app won't run.

Updating​

During updates, packages are downloaded to /tmp, and during apply step the .app bundle will be extracted and replaced.

If the .app is installed to /Applications (and not ~/Applications for example), elevation may be required. In this case, the updater will use AppleScrpt to request elevation and complete the update. The .app bundle created by Velopack does not need to be in /Applications to support updates, it is a portable / self contained bundle and if it is moved by the user it is still capable of applying updates.

The app can technically be updated while it's running, although Velopack will make an effort to close/restart it to clear out any old versions curently running.

Installing​

Velopack will automatically generate and sign a .pkg installer for you, which allows you to show a readme, conclusion, license page, etc. See the command line help for a complete list of options. It also allows the user to choose whether to install to /Applications or ~/Applications, and will launch the app automatically after it's been installed.

If you do not wish to ship a pkg, Velopack also creates a portable .zip which will be automatically extracted if clicked by the user in Finder. If you wish to ship a DMG instead, you can unzip this portable package and create a DMG that way.