Cannot run release on Mac

[praeclarum]

It seems that the compressor you are using is removing the executable flag from the Mac binary. This makes the .app impossible to run.

Also, it doesn't seem like you are signing the package. Catalina+ versions of macOS quarantine your .app because of this.

There are three different solutions to this:

1. Release as a .pkg so the app gets compressed correctly and it doesn't get quarantined.
2. Start signing the package and have it notarized.
3. Distribute on the Mac App Store

For those reading, here is how to fix the quarantine:

xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /Applications/ILSpy.app

Here is how to fix the missing flag:

chmod +x /Applications/ILSpy.app/Contents/MacOS/ILSpy

And here is how to re-sign the app:

codesign --force --deep --sign - /Applications/ILSpy.app

[christophwille]

The chmod +x only applies to existing /releases, not most current gh actions builds, correct?

[praeclarum]

@christophwille I only tried the release and didn't look at all at the GH actions.

[AraHaan]

You can still notarize the application without distributing it in the App Store. Apple does not care tbh all it needs to be is in an pkg or dmg file.

I know this because the .NET SDK installers notarize them on official builds (even official preview SDK releases) and the .NET SDK runs fine despite not being in the App Store.

[christophwille]

Slight problem there - you need macOS, XCode and a dev account. Don't know if Jeffrey has any of that, I don't have the latter (and have zero intent of getting one).

[AraHaan]

let me test that theory with only Rider + the .NET 6 Preview 3 SDK + the command line tools package that is installed the first time you try to use commands like gcc, clang, git, etc.

Yep it looks like those command line tools come with the codesign tool and as such all of those 3 commands can be done without XCode and no dev account and pushed into an pkg file or an dmg file.

I even know how to add things to dmg files with ease so that is a non-issue.

However thanks for exposing the codesign command. I can add that to the distribution of my C++ program as well. On that I already properly make the bundle manually and everything else using a makefile and it wraps a command line program to create a new terminal tab / window using a bash script wrapper with execution flags set.

[jeffreye]

I do have an account (a couple years back). The more important thing is managing the key without exposing it to the public. I haven't explored any options in GitHub. @christophwille do you have any clue?

[AraHaan]

Tbh I see no point in spending 100$ per year and per update (or whatever it actually costs to use it) just to publish ILSpy to the Mac App Store when they can simple go to github releases, download an dmg file then drag the code signed ILSpy.app into the Applications folder similar to how even the jetbrains dmg images do already in a clean way.

Besides all the tools to sign them today is simply available almost out-of-box with the exception of those that requires the command line development tools (which can be installed without needing XCode installed which is about ~12GB in size and in my opinion too big and I think apple really should have split them into separate apps based on what users would actually want / choose to actually use). I think if Apple done it to begin with plus I think most devs do not use most of what is in that 12 GB of clutter installed for that "App".

[christophwille]

We discussed Windows signtool.exe approaches in icsharpcode/AvalonEdit#283 (comment) (environment protected to master) Similar actions exist for notarizing (at least a quick search surfaced a few), and maybe also for codesign.

[jeffreye]

@praeclarum @AraHaan
Please take a look at #98
I tried to create a DMG file using create-dmg, but it still has the same issue (quarantine is the only thing to fix tho).

[chenmeng1996]

xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /Applications/ILSpy.app
it is work for me, thank you.

[Axemasta]

I ran into this issue with 7.2RC on a 2018 Intel Macbook Pro. Running the CLI allowed the app to launch correctly, thanks Frank you are a treasure ❤️

[jwosty]

Apparently an alternate workaround to re-signing the app is to just remove the signature, then it works:

codesign --remove ./ILSpy.app

The app apparently already has a signature (just an ad-hoc one):

$ codesign -dv ./ILSpy.app
Executable=/Applications/ILSpy.app/Contents/MacOS/ILSpy
Identifier=apphost-555549447a4355a3691f3dd6b38da9a2cacffc9c
Format=app bundle with Mach-O thin (arm64)
CodeDirectory v=20400 size=1225 flags=0x2(adhoc) hashes=32+2 location=embedded
Signature=adhoc
Info.plist=not bound
TeamIdentifier=not set
Sealed Resources=none
Internal requirements count=0 size=12

Also, this is interesting:

$ spctl -vvv -a /Applications/ILSpy.app
/Applications/ILSpy.app: code has no resources but signature indicates they must be present

Not sure exactly what that means - maybe the app contents are being messed with after the signature is created?