Is there a command to install a dmg

Question

I want to install a dmg file on a remote server. All I have is an ssh access. Since a DMG is a disk image, I tried to mount it, but mount does not seem to recognize its format.

file says my dmg file is a VAX COFF executable.

score 121 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 05 '23 at 20:27

121

First, mount the dmg image : hdiutil attach <image>.dmg

The image will be mounted to /Volumes/<image>. Mine contained a package which i installed with: sudo installer -package /Volumes/<image>/<image>.pkg -target /

Finally unmount the image: hdiutil detach /Volumes/<image>.

edited Sep 05 '23 at 20:27

Corey Brown

3

answered Dec 05 '12 at 09:34

philant

2,353

1

I did that with Docker.dmg and I had no <image>.pkg so that dit not work – Dimitri Kopriwa Oct 27 '19 at 15:56
mine is <image>.app instead of <image>.pkg after doing sudo hdiutil attach <image>.dmg, how can i do then? – jack Mar 27 '21 at 18:13
3

@jack If there is an .app within a DMG you usally can just drag/copy it to /Applications. – nohillside May 19 '22 at 06:01
Sometimes application inside dmg is distributed as app folder. In such case you need to copy it as in this answer https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/308510/452756 – Trismegistos Jan 16 '23 at 08:42
It's amazing how complex it is to perform such a basic operation on a macOS CLI. Looks like they forgot about the "Think" in "Think Different". – Martin Jan 08 '24 at 09:43

score 23 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 05 '12 at 09:26

23

You should be able to mount the .dmg using:

hdiutil attach /path/to/file.dmg

And then copy its contents (which appears in /Volumes) where ever you like.

answered Dec 05 '12 at 09:26

trojanfoe

395

score 19 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 09 '17 at 22:50

I had to mount and copy the .app to /Applications folder. For Etcher.app:

First as @trojanfoe said :

sudo hdiutil attach /Users/janatac/Etcher-1.2.1.dmg

Then

sudo cp -R /Volumes/Etcher\ 1.2.1/Etcher.app /Applications

You then have your application in /Applications folder

Don't forget to unmount the volume :

sudo hdiutil unmount /Volumes/Etcher\ 1.2.1/

Got it working after reading instructions from a blog post.

score 14 · Answer 4 · edited Feb 27 '19 at 00:55

14

If you want to script the install it requires a few more steps since the name of the .dmg file, the name of the Volume created, the name of the application, and the name of the device that needs to be detached can all be different. Plus they can have spaces in them.

Also a .dmg can have an .app file or a .pkg file in it and these require different behavior.

Here's a bash function to install a dmg from a remote URL:

# usage: installdmg https://example.com/path/to/pkg.dmg
function installdmg {
    set -x
    tempd=$(mktemp -d)
    curl $1 > $tempd/pkg.dmg
    listing=$(sudo hdiutil attach $tempd/pkg.dmg | grep Volumes)
    volume=$(echo "$listing" | cut -f 3)
    if [ -e "$volume"/*.app ]; then
      sudo cp -rf "$volume"/*.app /Applications
    elif [ -e "$volume"/*.pkg ]; then
      package=$(ls -1 "$volume" | grep .pkg | head -1)
      sudo installer -pkg "$volume"/"$package" -target /
    fi
    sudo hdiutil detach "$(echo "$listing" | cut -f 1)"
    rm -rf $tempd
    set +x
}

Note if your .dmg has an .app file that runs to install the program, then you will need to do something different again.

edited Feb 27 '19 at 00:55

Rian Sanderson

183

answered Jan 07 '18 at 19:54

voutasaurus

241

This will only work for dmg‘s containing ready-to-run apps, not for packages or installer apps. – nohillside Jan 07 '18 at 19:58
@patrix can you give me some examples of packages and installer apps that I can test against to refine the answer? – voutasaurus Jan 07 '18 at 20:11
Packages are easy (end in .pkg), but an installer app looks the same as a real one – nohillside Jan 07 '18 at 20:19
this does not detach the file. hdiutil: detach failed - No such file or directory – Nicholas DiPiazza Apr 09 '18 at 19:14
fixes it: sudo hdiutil unmount "$volume"/*.app – Nicholas DiPiazza Apr 09 '18 at 19:16
i wish there was a way to do this without sudo – Nicholas DiPiazza Apr 12 '18 at 14:11
1

@NicholasDiPiazza
I wish Apple would make this easier by providing and enforcing a single easy to use standard and giving developers tools to automatically convert their existing installers to use the new standard.
– voutasaurus Apr 27 '18 at 22:21

score 1 · Answer 5 · edited Dec 05 '12 at 11:52

1

You could try the command open disk://host.tld/image.dmg.

edited Dec 05 '12 at 11:52

Daniel

34,803

answered Dec 05 '12 at 09:26

Sanjuro

75

open didn't do anything, just exit, without error message. – philant Dec 05 '12 at 09:36
2

Yes it does. I just tested it. It won't display anything until the disk image has been completely mounted, so you will have to wait a minute or so before it appears in /Volumes. (It works if you ssh in and type open path/to/file.dmg. I don't think disk://host.tld/ works though.) – daviewales Dec 05 '12 at 12:19
Helpful, though maybe not exactly what the OP needed. Thanks. – Danny Whitt Feb 09 '14 at 12:06
I found that open -W </path/todmg> worked (it waits until the volume has actually appeared). – gib Jun 08 '20 at 10:20

Shofiq · Answer 6 · 2022-01-25T12:14:59.770

0

After you've downloaded the.dmg file. By pressing the right button, the file must be mounted and opened with the same picture.DiskImageMounter(Default).

.

The. app file will then be shown. When the. app file appears, open the terminal and navigate to the write directory where the file is located. and type open -a/ExistingFileName.app in the command prompt, then press enter. This is how I use the macOS terminal to launch the.dmg file.

edited Jan 25 '22 at 12:14

answered Jan 25 '22 at 11:51

Shofiq

1

You can also just double-click the DMG file to open it. Also please be more specific about what you mean with "open the terminal go to the directory write open -a/FileName.app and hit enter", this seems to lack some details. – nohillside Jan 25 '22 at 12:05
The OP only has "an ssh access", so he cannot open the .dmg this way. – IT-bob Jun 01 '23 at 07:42

Is there a command to install a dmg

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