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2. Searching for a specific macOS installer

Graham Pugh edited this page Jan 16, 2023 · 3 revisions

The Apple catalogs maintain multiple versions of the macOS installer. erase-install.sh uses mist, or optionally softwareupdate --list-full-installers, to search for all the installers available. By default it will download the latest version available that is compatible with the hardware on which the script is being run.

If you wish to obtain a different installer, you might want to search the catalog to find the appropriate installer version to download.

Options associated with listing

--list

To see which versions of the macOS installer app are available, run sudo /path/to/erase-install.sh --list from Terminal. You will see an output something like below:

┌──────────────────┐
│ INPUT VALIDATION │
└──────────────────┘
  ├─ Search only for latest (first) result will be 'false'...
  ├─ Include betas in search results will be 'false'...
  ├─ Only include compatible installers will be 'true'...
  ├─ Export path will be '/Library/Management/erase-install/mist-list.json'...
  ├─ Export path file extension is valid...
  ├─ Output type will be 'ascii'...
┌────────┐
│ SEARCH │
└────────┘
  ├─ Searching for macOS Installer versions...
  ├─ Exported list as JSON: '/Library/Management/erase-install/mist-list.json'
  └─ Found 16 macOS Installer(s) available for download

Identifier │ Name           │ Version │ Build   │ Size     │ Date       │ Compatible
───────────┼────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────────┼───────────
012-60271  │ macOS Ventura  │ 13.1    │ 22C65   │ 12.23 GB │ 2023-01-11 │ True      
012-93766  │ macOS Ventura  │ 13.0.1  │ 22A400  │ 12.16 GB │ 2022-11-09 │ True      
012-92138  │ macOS Ventura  │ 13.0    │ 22A380  │ 12.16 GB │ 2022-10-24 │ True      
032-12843  │ macOS Monterey │ 12.6.2  │ 21G320  │ 12.40 GB │ 2023-01-11 │ True      
012-90254  │ macOS Monterey │ 12.6.1  │ 21G217  │ 12.41 GB │ 2022-10-24 │ True      
012-40494  │ macOS Monterey │ 12.6    │ 21G115  │ 12.40 GB │ 2022-09-20 │ True      
032-12833  │ macOS Big Sur  │ 11.7.2  │ 20G1020 │ 12.42 GB │ 2023-01-11 │ True      
012-90253  │ macOS Big Sur  │ 11.7.1  │ 20G918  │ 12.42 GB │ 2022-10-24 │ True      
012-38280  │ macOS Big Sur  │ 11.7    │ 20G817  │ 12.42 GB │ 2022-09-20 │ True      
012-08272  │ macOS Big Sur  │ 11.6.6  │ 20G624  │ 12.42 GB │ 2022-05-24 │ True      
002-77154  │ macOS Big Sur  │ 11.6.5  │ 20G527  │ 12.42 GB │ 2022-04-11 │ True      
002-65695  │ macOS Big Sur  │ 11.6.4  │ 20G417  │ 12.45 GB │ 2022-02-17 │ True      
002-57023  │ macOS Big Sur  │ 11.6.3  │ 20G415  │ 12.44 GB │ 2022-01-26 │ True      
002-42341  │ macOS Big Sur  │ 11.6.2  │ 20G314  │ 12.44 GB │ 2022-01-14 │ True      
002-23589  │ macOS Big Sur  │ 11.6.1  │ 20G224  │ 12.43 GB │ 2021-12-01 │ True      
071-78704  │ macOS Big Sur  │ 11.5.2  │ 20G95   │ 12.45 GB │ 2021-08-18 │ True      

Note that only installers compatible with the system on which the script is running will be listed.

--list --beta

Add the --beta flag to search for beta versions.

--list --ffi

To see which versions of the macOS installer app are available via the --fetch-full-installer option, run sudo /path/to/erase-install.sh --list-full-installers from Terminal. You will see an output something like below:

Finding available software
Software Update found the following full installers:
* Title: macOS Ventura, Version: 13.1, Size: 11931164KiB, Build: 22C65, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Ventura, Version: 13.0.1, Size: 11866460KiB, Build: 22A400, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Ventura, Version: 13.0, Size: 11866804KiB, Build: 22A380, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Monterey, Version: 12.6.2, Size: 12104568KiB, Build: 21G320, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Monterey, Version: 12.6.1, Size: 12108491KiB, Build: 21G217, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Monterey, Version: 12.6, Size: 12104042KiB, Build: 21G115, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Big Sur, Version: 11.7.2, Size: 12119307KiB, Build: 20G1020, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Big Sur, Version: 11.7.1, Size: 12119247KiB, Build: 20G918, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Big Sur, Version: 11.7, Size: 12118755KiB, Build: 20G817, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Big Sur, Version: 11.6.6, Size: 12121263KiB, Build: 20G624, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Big Sur, Version: 11.6.5, Size: 12121404KiB, Build: 20G527, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Big Sur, Version: 11.6.4, Size: 12147782KiB, Build: 20G417, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Big Sur, Version: 11.6.3, Size: 12143674KiB, Build: 20G415, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Big Sur, Version: 11.6.2, Size: 12141944KiB, Build: 20G314, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Big Sur, Version: 11.6.1, Size: 12137180KiB, Build: 20G224, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Big Sur, Version: 11.5.2, Size: 12149332KiB, Build: 20G95, Deferred: NO

Note that no compatibility check is made on the available versions using this method. This is because no Build Version is accessible via this method, so a reliable comparison cannot be made.

--list --ffi --seed PROGRAM_TYPE

When using the --list parameter together with --ffi, you can --seed (or --seedprogram) to search for available versions of the macOS installer app in each seed program. This is commonly used to find beta installers. The available seed programs are PublicSeed, CustomerSeed and DeveloperSeed. These correspond to the Public Beta, AppleSeed and Developer catalogs.