How to combine two package installer files (PKG) to one big combined installer file?

Question

How to combine two package installer files (PKG) to one big combined installer file? by using Package Installer?

Answer 1

You can use productbuild to wrap several "component" packages into one "product archive". For example, you can do something like this:

productbuild --resource ./RESOURCE_FOLDER --package-path package1.pkg --package-path package2.pkg --distribution distribution.xml combine_package.pkg

productbuild does not only combine two packages together, it also gives you a chance to add more customizations to the product package. For instance, you can add a welcome screen and license page. You can also give user the choice to select which packages he would like to install. All you need to do is to provide a "distribution" xml file that looks like the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>
<installer-gui-script minSpecVersion="2">
    <title>My Installer</title>
    <welcome file="welcome.html"/>
    <readme file="readme.html" />
    <license file="license.html" />
    <background file="background.png" alignment="bottomleft" mime-type="image/png" scaling="proportional"/>
    <conclusion file="conclusion.html" />
    <options customize="allow" require-scripts="false"/>
    <choices-outline>
        <line choice="com.mycorp.package1"/>
        <line choice="com.mycorp.package1"/>
    </choices-outline>
    <choice id="com.mycorp.package1" title="Package 1" customLocation="/Library">
        <pkg-ref id="com.mycorp.package1">package1.pkg</pkg-ref>
    </choice>
    <choice id="com.mycorp.package" title="Package 1" customLocation="/Library">
        <pkg-ref id="com.mycorp.package2">package2.pkg</pkg-ref>
    </choice>
</installer-gui-script>

and put all resource html files under the folder you specified with the --resource flag.

Please visit https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/DeveloperTools/Reference/DistributionDefinitionRef/Chapters/Distribution_XML_Ref.html to see a detailed reference of how to write a distribution.xml.