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Why macOS 26 build numbers begin with 25
A question I’ve seen pop up in the Mac Admins Slack since the release of macOS Tahoe 26.x goes something like this:
Why does macOS 26 have a build number that starts with 25?
The answer has to do with Darwin, the core operating system that is the foundation for all of the following Apple operating systems:
For more details, please see below the jump.
Using printf to write variable values to JSON strings in Bash scripts
As part of my personal changeover from using the Jamf Pro Classic API to using the Jamf Pro API, I’ve needed to change from using XML for the Jamf Pro Classic API to now using JSON for the Jamf Pro API. In particular, one of my issues has been figuring out how to properly write variables to JSON when updating something on the Jamf Pro server using the Jamf Pro API. As always when writing scripts, there’s usually multiple ways to solve a problem and I figured out a solution to mine using the printf command. For more details, please see below the jump.
Reading DDM-managed Apple Software Update settings from the command line on macOS Tahoe 26.2.0
One of the challenges with reporting on DDM settings is that as of macOS Tahoe 26.2.0 there aren’t currently command line tools available which can report back on settings which are managed via DDM declarations. You can see the settings which have been applied on the managed Mac via System Settings, but so far that’s about it. However, in some cases, Apple is writing information for some DDM declarations to files which are readable by command line tools. I recently discovered that one of those declarations was the com.apple.configuration.softwareupdate.settings Software Update Settings declaration. For more details, please see below the jump.
PPPC device management settings visible in System Settings on macOS Tahoe 26.2.0
As part of the What’s new for enterprise in macOS Tahoe 26 release notes for macOS Tahoe 26.2.0, there’s this note:
App privacy permissions configured by device management are now shown in System Settings > Privacy & Security.
What this indicates is that a long-standing feature request by Mac admins has been fulfilled by Apple. For more details, please see below the jump.
Updating management status in Jamf Pro computer inventory records using the Jamf Pro API
A while back, I wrote a post on how to set Jamf Pro computer inventory records to be managed using a script. I recently revisited this script as part of a general effort on my part to update scripts which have been using the now-deprecated computers Classic API endpoint, to now use the Jamf Pro API’s computers-inventory-detail API endpoint.
As part of this effort, I decided to not only update my existing script for setting the management status in Jamf Pro computer inventory records to be managed but also write a second script for setting the management status to be unmanaged. For more details, please see below the jump.
New application version smart group and advanced computer search criteria available as of Jamf Pro 11.23.0
In macOS, applications record version information in the Information Property List file. This file is stored inside the Contents directory of the application bundle and is named Info.plist.
There are two keys inside the Info.plist file for an application which store version information:
What’s the difference between the two?
- CFBundleVersion: This is the version information used by macOS to determine which version is the most recent version of an application.
- CFBundleShortVersionString: This is the version information which is displayed to the user in a Finder window or a Get Info window.
There is no requirement in macOS that both the CFBundleVersion and CFBundleShortVersionString keys in the Info.plist file contain the same version information. What can happen as a result? Let’s take a look at that the context of some Microsoft applications which record different information in the Info.plist file for those two keys. For more details, please see below the jump.
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