Ask HN: Monitoring Installs on OS X | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Monitoring Installs on OS X

1 pointjman12 comments

I am curious to find out what files are being installed and where on my hdd when I install a program on my HDD. I am wondering if there is a way to start a 'monitor' before the installer runs such that it will show hdd/filesystem activity and that will show what new files/directories were created and which existing ones were touched modified.

Atleast in Windows, I knew where the files were install most of the time and if I wanted to remove something i could clean up manually what the uninstaller left out. AS for OS X i have no idea where stuff goes when a installer is used. I understand that straight forward apps are packages/directories themselves and contain most the files. But what happens when the program comes with a installer (say ms office or something like that)

Does OS X apps follow a certain structure like linux where configs go in one location, binaries in another and so on.

If anybody can point me in the right direction or explain what goes on when a program is installed that will great. Thanks.

File system monitoring:

  • sudo fs_usage
  • sudo opensnoop
  • lsof

With respect to package-based installations:

  • /Users/*/Library/Receipts/
  • /Library/Receipts/

Tools of interest (check man pages):

  • /usr/bin/lsbom SomeBOM.bom
  • /usr/bin/defaults read /Path/To/Receipt/org.example.foo.plist (Explicit, general PList reading example.)
  • /usr/bin/defaults read net.example.Bar (Searches in Preferences locations for matching name.)
  • /usr/bin/installer

Preferences (configurations):

  • /Library/Preferences/ (Computer-wide, Local Preferences)
  • /Users/*/Library/Preferences/ (User Preferences)

Application Support (serials, etc.):

  • /Library/Application Support/
  • /Users/*/Library/Application Support/

Further/related readings:

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/MacOS...

http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/FileMa...

http://www.gnustep.org/resources/documentation/User/GNUstep/...

http://osxdaily.com/2011/04/22/monitor-mac-os-x-filesystem-u...

http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2006081704414926...

http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#featuredarticles/Fil...

http://superuser.com/questions/97980/view-filesystem-access-...

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwi...

http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Develo...

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA26118?viewlocale=en_US

Note: Different tools are available/unavailable in different versions of OS X.

Thanks Man ! Will learn a few new commands as well.

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