Munki 6.5.0 Official Release

This is the official release of Munki 6.5.0: a new feature release of the Munki tools.

This is the same build as beta 3: there have been no changes since that build.

Changes

• Python changes (9e541a8)
  • Munki's included Python is now version 3.12.2
  • Certain added components have new versions:
    • cffi==1.16.0 (was 1.15.1)
    • pyobj-*==10.1 (was 9.1.1)
    • xattr==1.1.0 (was 0.10.1)
  • The imp module is no longer available in Python 3.12; this affected the import of middleware and repo plugins. The code has been updated to use importlib.util instead. (1850dbe)
• Managed Software Center: a new progress spinner appears in the sidebar next to the "Updates" label when an update is in progress. (64cdd0f)
• Source code: copyright dates updated
• Information about currently installed applications is available for use in manifest conditional_items and pkginfo installable_conditions. See Conditional Application Data for more info. (bf1ce5a)
• Updates to package pre- and postinstall scripts that call launchctl to use modern subcommands where possible. Drop support for pre-macOS 10.11 in these scripts. (bf91a80) (15de9ee)
• Better handling of items with autoremove=True that also have a requires list and one or more required dependency cannot be resolved. (18ea6c4)
• Better logging info when an item cannot be removed because other Munki items share the exact same packages (45b7ac6)
• Workaround for unexpected content in /usr/sbin/installer due to new bundle-style package deprecation warnings (new in macOS 14.4) 29fd72a Thanks to @vmiller for reporting this issue.
• manifestutil now has a delete-manifest subcommand: af4296d Thanks to @SteveKueng.
• Improved debug messages when attempting to find a valid uninstall method for an item: c9e3250
• Some changes to date/time handling so we have more explicit control of date-to-string and string-to-date conversions: aeac6e9

A complete list of changes from the 6.4.0 release is here: v6.4.2...v6.5.0

Known issues

Downgrading from 6.5 to an earlier version

If you install a version of the Munki tools that contains the Python 3.12 framework, and then later attempt to downgrade by installing an older version of the Munki tools (say, 6.4.2.4634) that contains a Python 3.10 (or earlier) framework, /usr/local/munki/munki-python will be broken. See https://github.com/munki/munki/wiki/Downgrading-Munki-tools for more information.

Additional Information

Build info

The GUI apps and the Python framework were built under Xcode 15.3 on macOS 14.4.1. Xcode 14.3.1 on macOS 13 should work as well. Other versions of Xcode have not been tested and may cause different results. (Due to Apple bugs, Xcode 15.0.1 or Xcode 15 on macOS Sonoma will result in GUI apps that won't run on macOS < 10.15).

OS version support

This release should work on macOS 10.13 through macOS 14, though it gets little-to-no testing on versions prior to macOS 12. Please report issues you find with older macOS versions.

Package versioning

• Distribution package version: 6.5.0.4659
• munki core tools version: 6.5.0.4659
• LaunchAgents/LaunchDaemons version: 3.0.3265
• Apps package version: 6.5.0.4654
• Python package version: 3.12.2.4653

Attachment info

The munkitools-6.5.0.4659.pkg attachment available here is an unsigned and unnotarized package that should install without requiring a restart unless upgrading from an extremely old Munki tools (like one of the 3.x releases or earlier). It should be suitable for most initial deployment scenarios, including those driven by DEP/ADE (if you first sign the package). It does not include a component to trigger "bootstrapping" or any other automatic run of the tools after installation.

Signed/notarized builds

Thanks to the efforts of @erikng and @natewalck, signed and notarized builds of Munki tools packages are available at https://github.com/macadmins/munki-builds/releases. There may be a delay for new releases -- please be patient.