os/mac/xcode: do not recommend softwareupdate CLI

[Bo98]

With macOS Ventura, Apple have changed this tool to force-upgrade macOS Monterey installs to macOS Ventura, without any ability to Ctrl+C cancel once it starts downloading. This behaviour cannot be opted out of, unless you manually check the list and install updates individually.

This is an extremely invasive thing to recommend for just updating the CLT, so we should recommend users to use System Preferences instead.

[BrewTestBot]

Review period skipped due to critical label.

[cattyhouse]

it is possible to remove --all and use --install item1 item2 ... instead, --list to get the name of item

[Bo98]

Something like

clt_label=$(softwareupdate --list | grep -B 1 -E 'Command Line Tools' | awk -F'*' '/^ *\\*/ {print \$2}' | sed -e 's/^ *Label: //' -e 's/^ *//' | sort -V | tail -n1)
if [[ -n "${clt_label}" ]]; then softwareupdate --install "${clt_label}"; fi

I guess? Bit complex to be putting as an instruction though.

[cattyhouse]

@Bo98 it has a fixed name for Command Line Tools, i think. Just make it hard-coded, if the name changes in the future, it does not hurt.

[Bo98]

Doesn't work for me:

$ softwareupdate --install "Command Line Tools"
Software Update Tool

Finding available software
Command Line Tools: No such update
No updates are available.

It appears in --list as:

* Label: Command Line Tools for Xcode-14.1
	Title: Command Line Tools for Xcode, Version: 14.1, Size: 687455KiB, Recommended: YES

Only softwareupdate --install "Command Line Tools for Xcode-14.1" works

[cattyhouse]

that sucks. what about --install "*Command Line Tools*", pure guess

[Bo98]

$ softwareupdate --install "*Command Line Tools*"        
Software Update Tool

Finding available software
*Command Line Tools*: No such update
No updates are available.

[cattyhouse]

then grep '* Label: Command Line Tools' makes it simpler to parse.

[Bo98]

Older macOS versions don't have Label: but yeah can definitely be simpler if you don't need anything that works on all versions.