Extracting a .pkg from a .pkg

http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/cli.html

 

While selecting the first (root) .pkg file and selecting Show Package Contents and viewing the package contents, how about dragging that second .pkg file to your HDD (Desktop for example) and doing it all over again (Show Package Contents > drag .third .pkg file to your HDD, ...)?

Terminal:

 

This is probably a flat-file package, and is therefore a single file. Here is a tip: flat-file packages are nearly regular packages that have been wrapped up in a xar file. There is a command-line utility in MacOS X for handling xar files (/usr/bin/xar), you can use it to take apart the pkg file.

But you should probably tell us what you are trying to accomplish here. There is probably a better way.

 

I am going to assume that you are making hardware specific images (otherwise you really need to go out and get retail discs... trust me on this)...

With that in mind you have two options:

1) Image the whole disc. Since there is only a single installer at the root of the volume that is the only one InstaDMG will pick up, and you can then use a InstallerChoices.xml file to pick out exactly what you want. I recommend that you use what I have referred to as the "new style" as the installer folks in the iLife team are very creative and use a lot of corners of the .pkg system that don't get exercised otherwise.

2) I don't think that you need to use this, but my guess is that if you get the size of the .pkg that you are trying to disassemble you will be surprised at how small it is. The latest disc I have in easy reach right here is for a MacBookPro5,3, and on that one it was very small... The real packages are linked in from it from non-Finder-visible folders on the disc. A little ferreting will get you what you want... but it is still better to use them intact.


See... it is always better to tell people your real goals, so they can do a better job answering the real question.