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Should we sign disk images to prevent translocation?

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Assessment

Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Newbie friendliness
25/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Needs clarification
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
macos
Domain
desktop, release

Research direction

Start by reviewing the current AppTranslocation path check that disables autostart and autoupdate when launching from a disk image. Investigate the linked disk-image signing information and determine whether signing changes those behaviors and binary paths; done means reaching and documenting a decision, with any required logic changes identified.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

It is apparently possible to sign disk images. This is a separate step from notarization.

More info: https://c-command.com/dropdmg/help/signing

If we sign the disk image, then the app will not be translocated when opening from the disk image.

I'm not sure if that would be useful for us.

Possible benefits:

  • autostart Postgres.app even when it is on the disk image (disk image might be mounted automatically, need to check)
  • nicer binary paths when creating a server with Postgres.app launched from disk image:
    • signed: /Volumes/Postgres-2.7.10-17/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/17/bin
    • unsigned: /private/var/folders/xx/xxxxxxxx/T/AppTranslocation/xxxx/d/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/17/bin
  • no translocation when people install app with cp -R instead of using the Finder to move the app

Currently we disable autostart and autoupdate when launching from disk image. We detect that by checking if the path contains "AppTranslocation". We would have to change that logic.

Dominant language
Makefile
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Forks
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Avg merge
6h 55m
Merged PRs (30d)
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