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No boms?
#7779 01/21/10 10:56 AM
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The entire contents of /Library/Receipts on my (allowable minimum) Snow Leopard installation is

Quote:
a.receiptdb
boms
BSD.pkg
db
InstallHistory.plist
(Expanded column view)

and that's after installing the recent security update.

I didn't even have a boms folder until I created one after noticing it was missing when my first attempt to install the security update stalled on writing a receipt, and I went looking. (Update now installed, but no receipt?)

Now I know why permission repair ran so quickly.

Is this normal?


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In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: No boms?
artie505 #7780 01/21/10 12:19 PM
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A search of FTM turns up a few threads, the further perusal of which leads to this succinct MM T3 post as well as this speculative ganbustein explanation of Apple's reasoning.



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Re: No boms?
dkmarsh #7856 01/23/10 08:18 AM
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I see that ganbustein's speculation on Apple's reasoning is almost immediately followed by mention by both Hal and he that they'd forgotten about MMT3's post (2 months before I got around to forgetting about it).

I second Hal's explanation and apology for the lapse.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: No boms?
artie505 #7865 01/23/10 03:10 PM
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No need to apologize; I was bemused by the fact that your first response to finding no boms folder in a brand new OS installation was to create one yourself, rather than to suspect that something had changed and to search accordingly.

Since I started with a vague recollection of having read about this, it was quickly confirmed with a simple Google search.



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Re: No boms?
dkmarsh #7896 01/24/10 07:49 AM
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I suspect that your real thoughts might (Edit: understandably) have been less kind and less gentle than "bemused," so some context is in order...

I was drawn to look in /Library/Receipts when, while trying to blast through an installation of Snow Leopard, the 10.6.2 Combo hung at "Writing Receipt" (or some-such).

Since SL's /Library/Receipts rather deceptively includes BSD.pkg and a db folder, as does Leopard's, my rushed reaction to the hang was to overlook the lack of .pkgs other than BSD and focus on the missing boms folder, i.e. create one.

Needless to say, my next attempt to install the Combo was successful, but when the receipt wasn't where I expected it to be I realized that, duuuh, it's not just the boms folder, but everything that should be in it, that's missing, and I posted here.

(Perhaps MMT3's post should have its own thread? Its placement in the middle of a DiskWarrior thread is hardly conducive to getting its message across.)

Last edited by artie505; 01/24/10 08:14 AM.

The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: No boms?
artie505 #7899 01/24/10 02:09 PM
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No, bemused is pretty accurate. It's something that wouldn't have occurred to me: to create a directory, myself, within /Library, on the theory that its presence is vital to the correct functioning of the system.

Just for grins, I created a new folder in /Library and named it bomd (boms having already been taken).

Here's the result of a Terminal comparison between the folder I created and the one that's already there (edit: this is in OS X 10.5.8):

delicata:~ dkmarsh$ ls -l /Library/Receipts | grep bom*
drwxr-xr-x 2 dkmarsh admin 68 Jan 24 08:37 bomd
drwxr-xr-x 64 _installer wheel 2176 Jan 22 08:30 boms


Notice that both the owner and the group of the folder I created are different from those of the existing boms folder. I can write to the folder I created, but not to the "legitimate" folder.

Now, I don't know how "incorrect" permissions on /Library/Receipts/boms might affect anything on a system version in which it's a vital folder (and I'm not going to experiment to find out), but the point is that the "create the folder if it's not already there" solution we sometimes see offered is generally confined to locations within the user's own home directory.

Last edited by dkmarsh; 01/24/10 02:14 PM. Reason: added system version info


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Re: No boms?
dkmarsh #7907 01/25/10 03:46 AM
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I recall from some posts by biovizier (elsewhere) that: if "_installer" is not the owner of the /Library/Receipts/boms/ folder (and/or its content) that perm DURP will fail to run (quits out almost immediately). I tend to concur with your expectation that Installer.app would be similarly displeased with same [if it were still interested in that folder, like back in Leo Jr.]


Last edited by Hal Itosis; 01/25/10 03:51 AM.
Re: No boms?
artie505 #7912 01/25/10 05:21 AM
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Am I the only one that read the subject of this thread and immediately thought of the little borderless white window with the bomb and the (Restart) button from OS 9?

And before you say it, lookie here


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Re: No boms?
Virtual1 #7917 01/25/10 09:09 AM
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> lookie here

That gave me a chuckle; I'd forgotten all about it.

Thanks.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: No boms?
dkmarsh #7918 01/25/10 09:25 AM
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> No, bemused is pretty accurate.

Bemused it is, then; thanks for being less harsh on me than I was on myself.

> [...] the point is that the "create the folder if it's not already there" solution we sometimes see offered is generally confined to locations within the user's own home directory.

If nothing else, this exercise in futility has spawned a new, pertinent (to others than myself, I suspect) sig.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire

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