Application Updates on Mac OS X

Question

To ensure that applications are updated on Windows, we can simply download the installer and run it. Applications are installed in% PROGRAMFILES%, and shortcuts are placed in different places. Keys and values ​​are added to the registry to provide an entry in the list of system programs.

To provide updates for Linux applications, we can use the system package manager.

How do you provide application updates on Mac OS X? I think you just drag and drop .app packages into / Applications? Does the system provide any registry other than "look in / Applications folder"? Should the general update flow simply include the download of the opening DMG file, prompting the user to drag the new application package into / Applications? Will copying an application package to a folder delete the existing package before copying or will it act like a regular folder (for example, add and replace existing files)? I just would like to get some general information about how I know that I need to implement the "check for updates" function in accordance with what is expected for a Mac OS X application.

Answer 1

Looks like you should take a peek at Sparkle .

In my experience as a Mac user (not Cocoa dev), it has become the de facto standard for self-updating applications, with the exception of a few monoliths such as Microsoft Office and Adobe CS.