Command to find out the version number of a .pkg file

Question

Does anyone know how to retrieve the version number of a .pkg file which isn't installed yet?

I'd like to use something like pkgutil --pkg-info, but that only works for installed packages.

I've also tried installer -pkginfo -verbose, but that doesn't show the version number.

Is there a built-in command to do this, or alternatively, could someone suggest a one-liner please?

Thanks.

d3Xt3r · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-12 23:36:23Z

3

The best I could come up with was this:

pkgutil --expand package.pkg /tmp/pkg; cat /tmp/pkg/PackageInfo | grep ./Applications | grep -m 1 .app\" | awk '{ print $3, $2 }'; rm -rf /tmp/pkg

Not the most elegant solution, so I'm still searching for a way to do this without having to extract the .pkg first.

answered Apr 12 '15 at 23:36

d3Xt3r

1191 silver badge7 bronze badges

Have you found any better solution yet ?? I do not see any effect to changing package version number when building the pkg file. The final package always seem to replace the existing files anyway, isnt it ? – Ahmed Aug 15 '16 at 22:32

add a comment |

Marek R · Accepted Answer · 2019-11-28 18:03:41Z

Variation of @d3Xt3r answer:

tar xOvf PackageName.pkg output.pkg/PackageInfo 2>/dev/null | grep '<pkg-info' \
    | sed "s#.* version=\"\([0-9\.]*\)\".*#\1#"

Advantage is that this is only pipe processing.

Note my package had different structure, there is an extra directory output.pkg which contains file PackageInfo

2 Answers 2