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I have an app for OS X only for in-house users of our company. So I can't upload it to the Mac App Store.

How can I include an "silent" updater? I see this by Google Chrome browser. If there is a new version, Google Chrome updated itself, without any questions or user interactions.

How can I do this?

jscs
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Skull
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    While I understand the security justifications for auto-updating a browser I don't like this behavior. Users don't expect their apps to change without explicit action. – sbooth May 31 '14 at 12:44
  • Doesn't the [sparkle framework](http://sparkle.andymatuschak.org) support this now? – Anya Shenanigans May 31 '14 at 14:00
  • Sparkle 1.5b isn't maintenance since months. I better don't use old frameworks. – Skull May 31 '14 at 14:43
  • I think https://github.com/pornel/Sparkle is the most active and recommended fork now – sbooth May 31 '14 at 15:59

2 Answers2

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Google Chrome installs an update daemon that checks for updates from time to time, and if the browser is not running, installs them. The browser's main files are actually installed into a permissive location (/Library/...) so that the updater does not require privilege escalation whenever it is installing an update. The app under /Applications/... is merely a launcher for the main files.

Léo Natan
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Chrome us open source isn't it? One way is to componentize your app into plugins ( bundles ). Then check for updates. Download and install them. You may need to get authorization from the user. You might also need a helper app that does all this ( and gets authorization to do it, or is installed as a root process )

uchuugaka
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