Filed under: Software, Productivity, TUAW Tips
TUAW Tip: Check the list of files that get installed on your Mac
Most Mac OS X users appreciate the simplicity of Mac application installation; it usually involves nothing more than a drag and drop out of a disk image, or simply unzipping a download. Still, some apps, plug-ins and other digital goodies require an installer, which means you're entering your password and granting permission for a program to place files anywhere on your machine.
If you've ever been curious (or concerned) about this operation, Apple's default Installer app (found in /Applications/Utilities/ and used by most independent software vendors - but not all - use to distribute their products) can display a log of every file a piece of software installed on your machine, accessible under File > Show Files after the Installer finishes its work (but before you quit/close it, of course). As you can see, the log is even searchable, making it easy to sift through those big install operations.
If you want to grab a copy of this log you can of course select all the text and copy/paste to your own file, but most installers (including those not from Apple) should place a copy of the install log in ~/Library/Logs, in which case you can use the Console app (also in the Utilities folder) to browse through those logs and easily mail a copy (with help from this tip) to a friend or developer. Some installers, however, place the log directly on your Desktop or on the root of your hard drive, and in my experience, most of those don't put a copy in the default logs location at all. Tsk, Tsk, guys.
These tools should make a handy addition to your tool belt if you're beginning to keep a more watchful eye on what gets put where by these installers, or of course if you're simply interested in learning more about how Mac OS X is built and where files go to get the job done.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kevin Little said 12:17PM on 5-18-2007
PC users always claim we do not have the depth of functionality at our fingertips that they have. Soon that argument will never work again. Then what?
http://www.ebizmba.com
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Leonard Nimrod said 12:40PM on 5-18-2007
It's unfortunate that executing the application can then install other files/folders without your knowledge.
I use a Smart Folder to list all the newly created files/folders within a specified time frame.
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richthomas said 1:33PM on 5-18-2007
this is a great tip. i sometimes dont install some software if it uses a menubar or a system prefs icon. and even better way to do this is to use Pacifist. you get a hierachial view of the installed files rather than every file in a list. very easy on the eyes.
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Henrik said 1:46PM on 5-18-2007
I just installed an app to split up .mkv files, called MKVExtract, but the log was blank. I guess this tip does not work every time, or the author can forcefully disable it.
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bobics said 2:19AM on 5-19-2007
Re: Leonard Nimrod
But that's what Apple recommends:
http://developer.apple.com/tools/installerpolicy.html
"The simplest solution is often the best. If possible, let the user simply drag a bundle from a mounted disk image or CD to the appropriate location on a drive. Apple recommends this type of installation whenever possible.
...
If you use a drag install, you can designate the initial application launch as an appropriate time to place files in specific locations."
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bobics said 5:40AM on 5-23-2007
I would have to strongly disagree with the poster that, " most installers... should place a copy of the install log in ~/Library/Logs."
I find that most installer do not. In fact, the default location for install logs created by Apple's Installer.app is in /private/var/log/install.log (it's a single file). You'll find WAY more install logging in here.
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Ian said 4:09AM on 5-21-2007
Most applications *don't* log anything from their install processes at all, so your post is inaccurate.
If you want to know after the event what went where, you have to enter the package receipt folder (e.g. /Library/Receipts/QuickTime716.pkg/Contents/) and run the 'lsbom' (list bill of materials) command on the BOM file (typically Archive.bom). This will show all the files installed by the package. Please note that the 'root' folder of the installation may not always be the root folder of your hard drive, so you also need to check the value of the IFPkgFlagDefaultLocation key in the Info.plist file in the same folder. Normally this will be '/' indicating the root folder of your hard drive, but sometimes it can be something else, such as /usr/local in the case of the MySQL database installer package from mysql.com.
In addition, you can check the Resources/ folder to see if there are any pre- or post-flight scripts. These are actions that are run by the installer before or after installation (there may also be upgrade scripts in there) in case the installer does anything else like adding new user accounts, changing folder permissions and so on.
I would like to stress though that you need to be highly familiar with Mac OS X and UNIX in general before you attempt to reverse any actions listed in these scripts, but I have often used these receipts to cleanly reverse installations of applications I no longer need; though preference files, application support and caches still need to be removed separately.
The BOM data is also the reason why you should *never* clean out the /Library/Receipts folder as it is used by the operating system to determine file ownership and permissions when running the fix permissions component of Disk Utility.
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