Building a Privileges installer package using AutoPkg

In working with folks who want to build installer packages to install the Privileges app, I’ve noticed that a number of them have experienced problems with manually building an installer package for Privileges which correctly installs the Privileges app’s helper tool.

The result of an installer which does not install the helper tool correctly is that when a user requests administrator privileges using the Privileges app, the app prompts them to install the helper tool. This requires administrative rights, which sets up a chicken and egg situation where admin privileges are being required to get admin privileges.

Fortunately, there is an automated method for building the installer package which (so far) has worked correctly in each case I’m familiar with. There are AutoPkg recipes available for creating a Privileges installer package and AutoPkg is able to build a correctly working Privileges installer package.

	computername:~ username$ autopkg search com.github.rtrouton.Privileges
	Name Repo Path
	—- —- —-
	Privileges.munki.recipe apfelwerk-recipes Privileges/Privileges.munki.recipe
	Privileges.install.recipe rtrouton-recipes Privileges/Privileges.install.recipe
	Privileges.munki.recipe rtrouton-recipes Privileges/Privileges.munki.recipe
	Privileges.jss.recipe rtrouton-recipes JSS/Privileges.jss.recipe
	Privileges.pkg.recipe rtrouton-recipes Privileges/Privileges.pkg.recipe
	Privileges.download.recipe rtrouton-recipes Privileges/Privileges.download.recipe
	To add a new recipe repo, use 'autopkg repo-add <repo name>'
	computername:~ username$

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gistfile1.txt

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For more details, please see below the jump.

Building an installer package for Privileges.app

One of the open-source contributions by the Apple@SAP team has been Privileges.app, a tool designed to grant or take away administrator rights from accounts on macOS. The general idea behind Privileges is that it allows people to work with the account privileges of a standard user for day-to-day use, but allows them to get administrator rights when needed.

Documentation for Privileges.app can be found at the GitHub repo which hosts it, which is available via the link below:

https://github.com/SAP/macOS-enterprise-privileges

However, one item not included in that documentation is how to package it for deployment. Instead, AutoPkg recipes were written and made available to automate the packaging process:

	computername:~ username$ autopkg search com.github.rtrouton.Privileges
	Name Repo Path
	—- —- —-
	Privileges.munki.recipe apfelwerk-recipes Privileges/Privileges.munki.recipe
	Privileges.install.recipe rtrouton-recipes Privileges/Privileges.install.recipe
	Privileges.munki.recipe rtrouton-recipes Privileges/Privileges.munki.recipe
	Privileges.jss.recipe rtrouton-recipes JSS/Privileges.jss.recipe
	Privileges.pkg.recipe rtrouton-recipes Privileges/Privileges.pkg.recipe
	Privileges.download.recipe rtrouton-recipes Privileges/Privileges.download.recipe
	To add a new recipe repo, use 'autopkg repo-add <repo name>'
	computername:~ username$

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gistfile1.txt

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However, not everyone is able to use AutoPkg in their environment, so manual packaging instructions are now available here. For more details, please see below the jump: