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Fixing a dodgy update
Authored by: stuartbryson on Sep 20, '02 09:31:53PM

I move all my apps into sub folders of /Applications eg /Applications/Internet/

If I run an Apple update it is unlikely that I will put the apps in the right spot. It doesn't matter though because you can fix it after. Usually an update only updates some of the bundle contents. For example Mail:

/Applications/Internet/Mail is where I store my app. After running the update I had a folder /Applications/Mail/. I right-clicked both of these and selected show contents. Then I copied each file from the /Applications/Mail/ folder into the /Applications/Internet/Mail folder. Note that you can't copy across folders at a time because you will delete files that the update does not have, so you must open each folder and just copy across the individual files into their relative location.

After this, your app will be up to date.

Stuart



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Fixing a dodgy update
Authored by: Thom on Sep 21, '02 02:18:02AM

Yeah, I have done this too -- most noticeably when trying to get old OS X Servers from 10.1.2 to 10.1.5, or sometimes just when the software update dies halfway through but then claims there's no new updates because it already wrote the new version string in a plist somewhere, or something. Grr, I hate that kind of thing. If OS X's update process has failed on me a number of times like that, I feel entitlted to wish that it'd save a cumulative 'undo' in case it bombs halfway through. Caveat Emptor, I guess...?

But remember: you can't always drag and drop those files where they belong. So you're probably better off doing it from the Terminal. There, you can see who owns them, what the perms are supposed to be, and so forth.

Also, bear in mind that if you use Terminal, some files you'll need to copy to the proper place are going to have resource forks, so use /Developer/Tools/CpMac, etc, or ditto -rsrc or whatever depending on the situation at hand. And if something's owned by root but still needs updating, then just use sudo to be root temporarily to make the command work.

All in all, I like the whole alias to invisible files idea proposed here. It's a very good idea and worth thinking about as preventative maintenance, because when those folders show up next time you're expecting to see brand new apps, you'll kick yourself.



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Fixing a dodgy update
Authored by: serversurfer on Sep 21, '02 02:27:41PM
Using Doppelganger is much simpler. ;)

But if you insist on doing it the hard way, you should at least use
/Developers/Applications/File Merge.app
to do your "dirty work". :)

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