Default Installs

New in Munki 6.1 is support for "default_installs" in a manifest:

<key>default_installs</key>
<array>
   <string>GoogleChrome</string>
   <string>Firefox</string>
   <string>MicrosoftWord</string>
   <string>MicrosoftExcel</string>
</array>

This feature is intended for environments where it is useful to offer a set of commonly-used apps as installed by default, but also give the end-user the option of removing these items if they do not use them.

When managedsoftwareupdate runs, if it finds any default_installs, it checks to see if they have already been added to the local SelfServeManifest under the default_installs key. If they have not, they are added to the local SelfServeManifest, under the default_installs key and also under the managed_installs key.

The SelfServiceManifest is processed as normal, and any items in managed_installs are ensured installed. But since this is the SelfServeManifest, the end-user can use Managed Software Center to cancel the installation of an item (before it is actually installed, or remove it (after it has been installed).

If they cancel or remove it, it will be removed from the SelfServiceManifest’s managed_installs. On a subsequent managedsoftwareupdate run, Munki will see the item was already added to default_installs in the SelfServeManifest, and so will not re-add it to the managed_installs of that same manifest.

Note the items in default_installs must also exist in optional_installs — they are simply a set of optional install items that will be installed by default. So in the above example, GoogleChrome, Firefox, MicrosoftWord, and MicrosoftExcel must also exist in optional_installs.