Installing the Xcode xip on end-user systems

I recently (just yesterday), updated how we’re installing Xcode on end-user systems at work and thought I might share the steps/script that we’re using.

Tools

• unxip
• swiftDialog
• Apple Developer Downloads

Setup

1. Install unxip to a common location on disk
   • In my case it’s /Library/Management/Tools/unxip
   • unxip is used as it is able to expand the Xcode.app file in about 3 minutes
2. Download the current version of Xcode from the Apple Developer site as a xip
3. Rename Xcode to .xip.pkg which enables Jamf to take the upload and store it in your Cloud Distribution Point
4. Create a Policy in Jamf to Cache the .xip.pkg file only scoped to All Computers, an Ongoing recurrence, and with a Custom Trigger
   • I use cache-Xcode-13.4
5. Create a second policy that runs the script below
   • Make sure Parameter 4 is the version of Xcode you’re deploying, eg 13.4
   • Make sure Parameter 5 is the Custom Trigger you set on the first Policy, eg cache-Xcode-13.4
6. This policy should be available via Self Service for end-users to run

Script Walkthrough

• This script utilises unxip for the quick expansion of the Xcode xip on end-user systems and swiftDialog for displaying progress to the end-user
• You will need to pre-install unxip on end-user systems outside of this script as the release binary is not signed, nor packaged
• The script will check for swiftDialog prior to kicking off, but because Bart provides a signed Package on his repo, the script will download/install it if not present
• Once swiftDialog is running, it will check for the cached version of the Xcode.xip.pkg on the system. If not found that will be downloaded using your defined Custom Trigger
• Once cached, unxip is used to unpack the .xip and move it into place in the Applications folder.
  • As we don’t know if the end-user has multiple versions of Xcode in use, we are naming the app according to the format Xcode-MAJOR.MINOR.app
• The script will then ensure the installing user is in the correct permissions groups
• And finally we will install the underlying packages within the .app bundle

You can view the gist here