Package maker problems

hi there i have a package maker issue that i am sure is either esily resolved because im overlooking something or unexplicaply dificult and i dont even reolise. now i am in no way schooled on how to use this software but common sense has allowed me to build an installer to install files to my desktop no problem. my problem arises when its time to install it on another user or on a diferent computer. because the destination folders i have specified are native to my environent and include my user in the filepath when i then put it on a diferent machine my user no longer exists and ofcourse the files do not end u in the corresponding folders. an example of a filepath i used would have been ' Macintosh HDD/Users/myuser/Desktop ' but the 'myuser' section of course is different on every machine so i gues my question is how do i set the destination path to work on any user on any machine? i tried /Users/User/Desktop and other combinations but like i said i dont realy know what im doing and its verry hard to find info on the subject.
ultimately i want to send 2 files to the applications folder 1 to replace an old version and the other a seperate program
then i want to add some component files to a plugins folder . seemed easy at first then i hit this bump in the road and iv been stuck ever since
many thanks in advance for any help you can offer

james fromcanterbury wrote:
hehe thankyou for your quick response .
i fear it will take me much more than a couple of weeks to master this however much i want it to come quickly.
my next question is rarther embarassing and highlights how little i know . how do i make a sandbox directory do i use patchmaker or do i need to download sandbox or is it part of xcode?
I was just using a generic term. The idea is that you need to setup a development area for installation that mirrors where you are installing. It is just a directory (of directories). It is important to keep it separate from your actual software you are building. Always copy things into the sandbox.
The problem is Package Maker. It is one of Apple's worst programs. One of the things you have to do before installing is change ownership of the sandbox directory to root. That makes dealing with your development directory a royal hassle. It is best to script all parts of a Package Maker installation.
also if you can point me in the direction of any literature on the subject i will be glad to read it!
That would be a great thing to have. Alas, it doesn't exist. There is (may be) documentation inside Package Maker. Some of it may include the command-line tools. There is also a man page for the command-line tools themselves. Neither is actually correct, or, at least, neither was correct the last time I used them. Use them as suggestions rather than documenation. Package Maker is just really buggy and hard to use. No easy answers there. Plus, it changes frequently so my 2-3 year old knowledge of how it used to work probably isn't accurate anymore. It really is trial and error.
In fact, in my last project, I just wrote a bootstrapping installer application. I included a preference pane inside the application bundle of the application. When the application started up, it checked for the preference pane, authenticated if required, and installed exactly what it needed. That was easier than using Package Maker.

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