[insha]

Okay, I have always wondered about this so I'm posting it here, so that I may be enlightened.

When installing any update (through the Software Update) what is it extacly that the OS is doing when it says "Optimizing Volume" and why does it take so long sometimes (I have TiBook 550 with Panther).

[gorickey]

Optimizing = "Prebinding"...

[mitchell_pgh]

It drives me crazy when a little app does it...

[insha]

gorickey to the rescue once again.

mitchell: I know. I hate it takes so long...

[Brass]

It wouldn't bother me so much if the "3 minutes remaining..." message was actually calculated to include the optimising!!! What really is the point of telling us the time remaining, if that time does not have anything to do with the actual time it takes to complete the entire process?

[philzilla]

Originally posted by insha:
gorickey to the rescue once again.

yeah, he read that here

[ginoledesma]

Optimizing (prebinding) can take ages, then there's the "standard practice" of having to do repair permissions after an update. Grrrr!

[utidjian]

I am working on a set of scripts for semi-automatically updating a set of Macs on a subnet. Semi-automatic because I don't want to apply updates as _soon_ as they are available... I prefer to wait a bit and see if anyone else has problems and to test them locally on a test box.
I am still in the "collecting a set of commands stage" to see what will work.

I have:

Code:
softwareupdate -l

Lists available updates.

Code:
softwareupdate -a -d

Downloads all available updates to /tmp/0/TemporaryItems/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate/ but exits with a "Bus error"... but it does work.

Code:
installer -pkg /tmp/0/TemporaryItems/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate/* -target /

Which installs the updates just downloaded and does it really fast.

Code:
update_prebinding -root /

Which takes a very long time, spits out lots of errors, and I am not sure if it is really neccessary. I am not sure if this is the correct command or synonym for the "Optimizing" done by SoftwareUpdate.app. Any thoughts?

[Boondoggle]

Originally posted by ginoledesma:
Optimizing (prebinding) can take ages, then there's the "standard practice" of having to do repair permissions after an update. Grrrr!

yeah what is up with that? Are the installers so bad that they mess up permissions every time? Or should Apple just include a script to automatically repair permissions durring startup following a Software Update initiated reboot? That alone would be a blessing.

[chabig]

What I always wanted to know is what is happening when it says "The installer need to run a program". What's that?

Chris

[gorickey]

Originally posted by chabig:
What I always wanted to know is what is happening when it says "The installer need to run a program". What's that?

Not sure of the "app"; however, it needs to be run and can be set to do many things. The most common of which is to make sure you are not running another/same version of the program you are installing...

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by chabig:
What I always wanted to know is what is happening when it says "The installer need to run a program". What's that?

Chris

That's because of the "Internet-enabled disk image" thing that Apple has introduced that allows a disk image to automatically open a .pkg installer when downloaded by Safari. If it just ran the script to check for older versions without asking first, you could have a browser redirect point you to a .dmg file, which would get downloaded, the .pkg would automatically run, the script would automatically launch, and BAM! Virus.

With the way Apple has done it, it works more like this: You can have a browser redirect point you to a .dmg file, which would get downloaded, the .pkg would automatically run, the message saying that the installer needs to run a program would pop up, the user would click "Continue" without reading it, the script would get launched, and BAM! Virus. As you can see, this is a great leap forward for security.

[chabig]

I see. Now Apple can blame the user...

I guess the it does serve as a precaution, though. If you know you didn't download an installer, don't hit the continue button.

Chris

[gorickey]

Originally posted by CharlesS:
That's because of the "Internet-enabled disk image" thing that Apple has introduced that allows a disk image to automatically open a .pkg installer when downloaded by Safari. If it just ran the script to check for older versions without asking first, you could have a browser redirect point you to a .dmg file, which would get downloaded, the .pkg would automatically run, the script would automatically launch, and BAM! Virus.

With the way Apple has done it, it works more like this: You can have a browser redirect point you to a .dmg file, which would get downloaded, the .pkg would automatically run, the message saying that the installer needs to run a program would pop up, the user would click "Continue" without reading it, the script would get launched, and BAM! Virus. As you can see, this is a great leap forward for security.

[Most Informative Post of the Day®]

Thanks CharlesS...

[/Most Informative Post of the Day®]

[Spliffdaddy]

If the permissions are broken - how does the OS know what they're supposed to be? Does it take an educated guess?

How come RedHat and WinXP never need their permissions repaired?

[chabig]

If the permissions are broken - how does the OS know what they're supposed to be?

Good question. I think it uses the receipts that are left over following software installations. But why they sometimes get messed up...I don't know? I do think I've had super stability since I installed Macaroni, which runs the daily, weekly, and monthly unix scripts, and repairs permissions on the fly once a week.

Chris

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by Spliffdaddy:
If the permissions are broken - how does the OS know what they're supposed to be? Does it take an educated guess?

How come RedHat and WinXP never need their permissions repaired?

It gets them from the package receipts.

Although IMHO, people are way too zealous around here about repairing permissions.