Is it possible to install a .pkg using a terminal ? (I wanted to install an app through ssh).
3 Answers
/usr/sbin/installer
The installer command is used to install Mac OS X installer packages to a specified domain or volume. The installer command installs a single package per invocation, which is specified with the -package parameter ( -pkg is accepted as a synonym). It may be either a single package or a metapackage. In the case of the metapackage, the packages which are part of the default install will be installed unless disqualified by a package's check tool(s).
See man installer
for the full functionality. Often
sudo installer -pkg /path/to/package.pkg -target /
is all that's needed. The target is a "device" (see the man page for details or run installer -dominfo
). Here /
is the main drive, it also accepts devices like "/Volumes/Macintosh HD"
, or /dev/disk0
.
-
7Note that the -target is a device and not a path. So keep it "/" for most cases.– AlexVNov 15, 2016 at 2:53
-
1@AlexV colour me confused -
/
is a path and a device is mounted on it. So why would an option that requires a device as an argument accept/
?– muruJun 14, 2017 at 2:25 -
3@muru - The documentation calls it a "device", but really it's got its own syntax for defining target (not exactly "unix device node"). According to the installer manpage, it can be a device node (as you expect), the disk identifier (eg disk1s9), the mountpoint (hence "/"), the volume UUID, or any of the install domains listed by
installer -dominfo
.– sehrgutMar 28, 2019 at 19:09
Just in case it's needed; if you want to installer a .pkg without root access:
installer -pkg myapp.pkg -target CurrentUserHomeDirectory
will install the package in ~/Applications.
-
1Is
CurrentUserHomeDirectory
in this case a special literal token? Or is that to be replaced with$HOME
?– coolaj86Jul 11, 2020 at 5:48 -
-
This doesn't work for me. I get
installer: Certificate used to sign package is not trusted
then when I try allowUntrusted I get installer: Package name is Insta360 Studio 2022 installer: Installing at base path /var/root installer: Preparing for installation…..... installer: Preparing the disk…..... installer: Preparing Insta360 Studio 2022…..... installer: The install failed. Apr 22 at 22:02
Install all .pkg
files from the current folder to /Applications
(or whatever target folder is configured in the package):
for f in *.pkg; do
sudo installer -verbose -pkg "$f" -target /
done
As an alternative you can install the packages to your home folder with -target ~
. They will end up in /Users/<your_account>/Applications
unless a specific path is predefined in the installer.
If you want to see which specific folders a pkg installer writes to and which post-install scripts will be run then check out SuspiciousPackage (freeware, can be installed with
brew install --cask suspicious-package
), and use quick preview from Finder when a.pkg
file is selected. Pressing spacebar in Finder with the selected file should work too. A similar shareware (nagware) app — Pacifist, can be used for inspecting and unpacking dmg/pkg and other container formats.
-
5This doesn't necessarily install to
/Applications
- it depends on the package, for example PowerShell for macOS installs to/usr/local
.– RichVelMay 24, 2017 at 8:21 -
I've put this in an answer as well, but
-target CurrentUserHomeDirectory
is what I've used successfully for Microsoft Edge and Logitech Camera Settings app.– RCrossJun 29, 2020 at 8:17