Create build-specific installer for macOS

Similar to legacy/trac#28546 (moved) modify macOS installer to allow Tor Browser release, alpha and nightly to be installed side-by-side.

moved from tor-browser#28809 (moved)

added BugSmashFund in Legacy / Trac component::applications/tor browser in Legacy / Trac owner::pospeselr in Legacy / Trac points::2 in Legacy / Trac priority::medium in Legacy / Trac severity::normal in Legacy / Trac status::assigned in Legacy / Trac type::defect in Legacy / Trac labels

The macOS "installer" is really just a pretty Finder window that is presented from a read-oly DMG-based volume (that way, copying the .app out of the installer window always makes a copy). If you embed a different icon in each .app "flavor" the installer window should show the correct one.

If we want to provide a way for people to install release, alpha, and nightly apps side-by-side, then we do not need to do anything: macOS users already do this today by creating a folder for each copy of the application. The folder will then contain Tor Browser.app and the TorBrowser-Data folder that is associated with that instance.

On the other hand, if we want to allow users to put release, alpha, and nightly app bundles in /Applications all at the same time we would need to do two things: (1) Use a unique name for the app bundle, e.g., Tor Browser Alpha.app vs. Tor Browser.app. (2) Use a unique name for the TorBrowser-Data directory. Today when the application is launched from /Applications, the data directory is always created in the same location (~/Library/Application Support/Tor Browser-Data), and sharing that between release, alpha, and nightly could cause problems.

My opinion is that it is not worth the engineering effort to do (2), but maybe we should do (1). Having a unique .app name and icon would definitely make it easier for people to keep track of which app is which.

Trac:
Parent: legacy/trac#25702 (moved) to N/A

Trac:
Keywords: N/A deleted, BugSmashFund added
Points: N/A to 2

changed time estimate to 16h

mentioned in issue legacy/trac#28810 (moved)

moved from legacy/trac#28809 (moved)

added Bug label and removed 1 deleted label

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unassigned @richard

marked this issue as related to tor-browser#40930

removed BugSmashFund label

added Backlog label

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added Sponsor 131 label

changed milestone to %Sponsor 131 - Phase 2 - Privacy Browser

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mentioned in issue #40939 (closed)

added 13.5 stable label

marked #40939 (closed) as a duplicate of this issue

marked this issue as related to #40939 (closed)

marked this issue as related to tor-browser#41839 (closed)

assigned to @pierov

removed Roadmap::Future label

added Doing label

marked this issue as related to tor-browser#42398 (closed)

The name bundle is MOZ_APP_DISPLAYNAME, where we are going to include the channel name in tor-browser#42398 (closed), for consistency on Mullvad Browser, where the display name is used for default browser stuff.

Moreover, in my recent changes to the Windows installer, I already started including the channel name in the default directory of alphas and nightlies, and in the shortcut name. So, even more consistency gained by doing this .

We'll still have the problem of profiles: at the moment, all the channels are sharing the same profile, even though Firefox now supports channel-specific profiles (and we're explicitly disabling them). However, we'll need to investigate separately on what to do for this (especially if we want to migrate the old data if we decide to move to channel-specific profiles).

Okay, there are some small things to fix, such as the .DS_Store of the DMG. Maybe should we update also the DMG label since we're at it?

The profile is shared as expected.

For the record, I've used this script to generate the all the dmgs at once.

mentioned in merge request !909 (merged)

marked this issue as related to #41075 (closed)

marked this issue as related to #41074 (closed)

added Needs Review label and removed Doing label

Closing, since the dmg part is done.

For the profile part we can open another issue in tor-browser, if needed.

closed

removed Needs Review label

mentioned in merge request !916 (merged)

mentioned in merge request !921 (merged)

Wow, deep cut from the archives, nice work @pierov !

Thank you

marked this issue as related to #41124 (closed)