darwinup(1) BSD General Commands Manual darwinup(1)
NAME
darwinup -- Install, uninstall, and manage roots
SYNOPSIS
darwinup [-dfnv] [-p path] subcommand [arguments ...]
DESCRIPTION
darwinup allows you to manage roots, or archives, of files that replace parts of your system. This is useful for installing a new version of
a library or tool on your system while allowing you to uninstall the files and revert back to the originals safely and easily.
OPTIONS
-d Do not run helpful automation. See HELPFUL AUTOMATION below.
-f Force. Some operations will fail gracefully due to potentially unsafe situations, such as a root that installs a file where a direc-
tory is. In order to have darwinup continue through such a situation, you can pass the -f option.
-n Dry run. Darwinup will go through an operation, including analyzing the root(s) and printing the state/change symbol, but no files
will be modified on your system and no records will be added to the depot. This option implies -d.
-p [path]
Prefix path. Normally, darwinup will operate on the boot partition. You can use the -p option to have darwinup work on another par-
tition. You can provide any arbitrary path, it does not need to be a mount point.
-r Restart. Gracefully restart after all operations are complete by telling Finder to restart.
-v Verbose. This option causes darwinup to print extra information. You can pass 2 or 3 v's for even more information, but that is usu-
ally only needed for development and debugging of darwinup itself.
SUBCOMMANDS
Note that the path and archive options listed below support globbing and multiple items. See the EXAMPLES section below for more details.
files archives
List the files and directories in the archive.
install path
Install the root at path.
list [archive]
List archives that are installed. You may optionally provide an archive specification to limit which archives get listed.
rename archive name
Rename an archive.
uninstall archives
Uninstall the specified archive.
forget archives
Forgets the specified archive. The archive must have been installed on an older base system.
upgrade path
Find the last archive that was installed with the same name (basename of path), and replace it with the root at path.
verify archive
List all of the information about archive. This includes status letters detailing how the archive differs from whats on disk
STATE
/CHANGE SYMBOLS
? Unknown state. Probably a bug.
! Missing file during uninstall. Darwinup expected a file or directory to exist, but it did not. This could be a bug in darwinup, but
most likely another tool or software update removed a file that darwinup had been tracking. It can also be caused by an installation
failing due to an object changing type (see FORCING OPERATIONS below), and the subsequent rollback finding the root only partially
installed. Since these all happen during uninstall, they are typically safe to ignore, since darwinup was going to delete the object
anyway.
A Added. No previous file or directory existed so the file or directory was added to your system.
E External change. The file you are installing is different than the last file you installed, but it is identical to what was actually
found on disk. This probably means something manually installed a root or software update without darwinup knowing about it. This is
usually harmless.
M Mode change. Only changes to permission or ownership were needed to uninstall the file or directory.
R Removed. No previous file or directory existed, so the uninstall process removed the file.
U Updated. During installation, the file or directory replaces an existing object at the same path. During uninstallation, the previ-
ous version of the file was restored.
I Ignored. A file specified in the removal list was not removed. This usually indicates that the file was a directory and the path in
the removal list lacked a trailing / character.
SUPPORTED PATHS
/path/to/file-or-directory
You can install archive files or directories by specifying a relative or absolute path. If the path is a directory, all files below
it will be installed as a single root. If the path points to a file, it must be one of the supported archive file types as described
in the usage statement.
user@host:/path/to/file-or-directory
You can install files or directories from another host via rsync/ssh. The files/directories will be downloaded to your machine and
then installed like any other root.
http[s]://host/path/to/file
You can install files from an archive hosted on an HTTP/HTTPS server. The archive file will be downloaded using curl to your machine
and then installed like any other archive file. You can not point darwinup at a directory hosted via HTTP or HTTPS, only archive
files such as tarballs.
ARCHIVE SPECIFICATIONS
When running a subcommand which takes an archive argument, you can use one or more of the following items to specify which archive to operate
on. You can mix and match any of them as needed. You can use the list subcommand with these specifications to see what will match.
serial You can specify an archive with its serial number, which can be found using the list subcommand.
uuid You can specify an archive with its UUID, which can be found using the list subcommand.
name You can specify an archive with its name, which can be found using the list subcommand.
newest The newest keyword will match the one archive which was most recently installed. This should always be the first archive listed.
oldest The oldest keyword will match the one archive which was installed the longest time ago. This should always be the last archive
listed.
superseded
The superseded keyword will match zero or more archives. An archive is superseded if every file it contains is contained in an ar-
chive that was (and still is) installed after it. A file in an archive can also be superseded by external changes, such as operating
system updates. When uninstalling a superseded archive, you should never see any status symbols, since being superseded means there
is a newer file on disk.
all The all keyword will match all archives. If you specify extra verbosity with -vv, then rollback archives will also be matched by the
all keyword. This means that darwinup -vv uninstall all will attempt to uninstall rollback archives, which will print a message
about not being able to uninstall rollback archives. This is normal and not a problem.
FORCING OPERATIONS
There are 2 cases where darwinup will require you to pass the force (-f) option before proceeding with an operation.
Object Type Change
If you install an archive which contains a file with the same path as a directory on your system, or vice versa, darwinup will give
you a error about not doing that unless you really want to force it. If you do force the operation, darwinup will delete the exist-
ing object and replace it with the object from the root. This can happen when a directory full of files gets packaged up in some
opaque file, like xibs/nibs. If you expect this "type change", then it is probably safe to force the operation.
Uninstall a root from an older base system
Darwinup remembers the version (build) of the operating system when a root is installed. The reason for this is darwinup saves the
old (replaced) files during the installation procedure. Those backups may have come from the older operating system, and thus are
not necessarily compatible with the current build of the operating system. So if you try to uninstall an archive that had been
installed on a different version of the operating system, darwinup will stop and provide a message asking you to force the operation
if you really want to. If the files you are uninstalling are all superseded, then you should not get this error as the backup copies
will not be used anyway.
HELPFUL AUTOMATION
Darwinup tries to detect common situations and run external tools that you would otherwise have to remember to run yourself. The "dry run"
(-n) and "disable automation" (-d) options prevent any of the following from happening.
Dyld Cache
If a root modifies any file, then darwinup will run update_dyld_shared_cache unless the -d option is specified.
Kernel Extensions
If a root modifies a file under /System/Library/Extensions, then darwinup will update the mtime of /System/Library/Extensions to
ensure that the kext cache is updated during the next boot.
REMOVING FILES
darwinup supports removing files from disk as part of installing a root. These files must be enumerated in a list that is included in the
root at the path /.DarwinMetadata/removals. The list is a simple text file consisting of paths to remove, separated by new lines. Directo-
ries may be present in this list. If a directory is to be removed, its path must include a trailing '/' character, and all of its descendants
will be removed. When files are removed as part of root installation, they will be restored when the root is uninstalled with the uninstall
command.
It is permissible for the root to contain files that are specified in its removal list. This is primarily useful for replacing entire direc-
tory hierarchies as singular entities.
IMPORTANT: Replacing a directory hierarchy can only be done safely is the root creator has full knowledge of the contents of a given direc-
tory hierarchy and knows how to completely populate it such that all dependencies will be satisfied. For example, a project which installs
content into /usr/include should not specify that path in its removal list since many other projects populate that directory. The result of
the removal operation in such a case would be the only the contents of the root would exist in /usr/include after the installation completes.
darwinup cannot and does not protect against this scenario, so exercise extreme caution when constructing roots with removal lists.
NOTE: Neither the .DarwinMetadata directory nor its contents will be installed into the destination path.
EXAMPLES
Install files from a tarball
$ darwinup install library-1.2.3.tar.gz
Install several directories from /tmp/
$ darwinup install /tmp/*/*~dst/
Uninstall everything
$ darwinup uninstall all
See what archives have been superseded and then uninstall them
$ darwinup list superseded $ darwinup uninstall superseded
Uninstall several archives by serial, the oldest one, and one named myroot
$ darwinup uninstall 9 16 myroot oldest
Install a root from src.macosforge.org
$ darwinup install http://src.macosforge.org/Roots/10D573/zlib.root.tar.gz
SEE ALSO
rsync(1), curl(1), tar(1), gzip(1), ditto(1), update_dyld_shared_cache(1)
Darwin 7 Mar, 2015 Darwin