Removing uninstalled Command Line Tools from AppStore updates

Question

I have deleted the Xcode Command Line Tools from my machine by essentially removing the folder. However, AppStore still shows updates from the CLI tools, which obviously I don't want.

I've been trying to properly understand where AppStore looks to figure out what needs updating, but I haven't been able to find a certain answer yet. I tried editing the updatejournal file, but that didn't help, so I've since restored it.

I started to suspect that the fact that pkgutil shows some CLTools-packages might be the cause of this. Forgetting them does not work however as the bom are neither in /var/db/receipts or /Library/Receipts (the pkgutil --forget essentially fails because of this).

I did however find them after a lot of searching in /System/Library/Receipts. Those I can't delete though due to the system security. I can of course bypass that and delete them to see if it works, but I don't want to do that "just to see".

I would like to find a proper solution to this.

Any ideas what I should do here?

Answer 1

I managed to fix it, it seems like I suspected, the problem was the boms in the /System/Library/Receiptsfolder.

So I booted into recovery mode, disable SIP, moved all files from that folder that had com.apple.pkg.CLTools*in their name, and the update in the App Store went away. Then I booted into recovery again to enable SIP.

It doesn't feel quite right to disable the security, but I gave it a try in this case as other similar problems seemed to be related to lingering bom files, so perhaps it makes sense.

Answer 2

There are 2 steps for clean removal

1. Delete /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools directory (as mentioned above).
2. Reset to default command line tools by running

xcode-select -r

Explanation: When command line tools are installed, the path for command line tools is set to "/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools". This can be checked by running

xcode-select -p

Even if we remove the directory, system would go and check there. Once you reset the path and run xcode-select -p, it gives an error

xcode-select: error: unable to get active developer directory, use sudo xcode-select --switch path/to/Xcode.app to set one (or see man xcode-select) This would bring it to the initial state.

Running any command, say "python3 --version" without resetting the path would give:

error: tool 'python3' requires Xcode, but active developer directory '/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools' is a command line tools instance

and once you reset the path, it will will prompt to install command line tools along with :

xcode-select: note: no developer tools were found at '/Applications/Xcode.app', requesting install. Choose an option in the dialog to download the command line developer tools.

Answer 3

I just spent hours on this exact issue and FINALLY FIGURED IT OUT, for anyone reading this in the future.

Deleting /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools didn't work.

xcode-select -r didn't work.

There were no receipts or boms in the usual places (/var/db/receipts, /Library/Receipts, and /System/Library/Receipts).

Know what it was? The receipts were in /Library/Apple/System/Library/Receipts. Removed everything with CLTools or SDK in the name and the system update for the CLT disappeared. THANK THE LORD. Not sure if SIP needed to be disabled for this or not (I had it disabled).

Answer 4

Delete this folder and your headache's will be gone forever:

/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools

Answer 5

My reinstalled macOS Mojave had exactly the same problem. I installed Xcode and CLT both, then 6 or 7 CLT updates come out from System Update, suggesting me to install old version CLTs.

I then removed this folder /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools, reboot, all the updates are gone.

I didn't remove the receipt things.

Answer 6

Thanks Alex, this was exactly the information I needed.

On a fairly recent Mac setup (Apple Silicon chip, macOS 12.0 Monterey Beta), having installed the Command Line Tools then uninstalled them by deleting /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools and running sudo xcode-select -r, I was still getting updates to the tools in System Preferences > Software Update.

Indeed, the receipts are at /Library/Apple/System/Library/Receipts, in the form of files

com.apple.pkg.CLTools_Executables.{bom,plist}
com.apple.pkg.CLTools_SDK_macOS*.{bom,plist}
com.apple.pkg.CLTools_macOS_SDK.{bom,plist}

They are protected by SIP: to delete them, I had to disable SIP first (ie disable SIP, delete the files, re-enable SIP).

Answer 7

Upon testing on macOS 12.4, Software Update in System Preferences has the plist and bom stored in /Library/Apple/System as installer pacakges volume. The process to remove them:

1. disable SIP
2. Run the following command line
3. enable SIP

the command line:

Vol="/Library/Apple/System"; if [ "$(csrutil status | awk -F': ' '{print $2}')" = "disabled." ]; then /usr/sbin/pkgutil --pkgs="com.apple.pkg.CLTools_.*" --volume "$Vol" | while read -r pkg; do sudo /usr/sbin/pkgutil --forget "$pkg" --volume "$Vol"; done; else echo "After disbale SIP, run this command again, and then enable SIP."; fi

simple explain： if SIP is disabled, it reads all com.apple.pkg.CLTools_* package ID and remove them one by one by assign volume path to "/Library/Apple/System".

Answer 8

Following on what TonyL. shared, you can currently (as of macOS Ventura) forget any package by:

1. Temporarily disable SIP
2. Run sudo pkgutil --forget _ANY_PACKAGE --volume "/Library/Apple/System"
3. Enable SIP

Answer 9

Followed suggestion by @Alex user:429648 above, and that worked perfectly for me to stop system notifications to update Xcode Command Line Tools.

The one additional thing needed to do was to disable SIP first, then follow Alex's simple steps.

Answer 10

• Remove

  sudo rm -rf /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools
  

• If needed install again

  sudo xcode-select --install