Towards a Smaller Install Footprint

We talk about the removal of PowerManager.framework from the Power Manager application and what it means for the supporting applications and tools.

We recently stopped installing PowerManager.framework as part of Power Manager. This change is part of our move towards reducing the number of files needed on your Mac for Power Manager to work.

When you updated to Power Manager 4.5.1’s scheduler, the framework was automatically removed. There is nothing for you to do.

In an ideal world, Power Manager.app would not need additional files to be installed on your computer. Ideally, Power Manager would operate as a single application bundle neatly located in your /Applications folder. For now at least, this is not possible.

One Less Bundle

PowerManager.framework was previously installed in the /Library/Frameworks/ folder. This framework was used by a few of the helper tools including pmctl and pmuser.

Screenshot showing the PowerManager.framework icon on OS X

With Power Manager 4.5.1 we stopped needing the computer wide framework. The parts of the framework needed by the tools were embedded directly into the tools themselves. One important benefit of this change is that the tools now work even when PowerManager.framework is missing.

You can now copy pmctl and the interfaces folder to a Mac that has no other part of Power Manager on it. From there pmctl will work as expected. Something I know Terminal.app loving system administrators will appreciate.

Missing PowerManager.framework?

If you need to link against PowerManager.framework, you can. A copy of the framework remains within Power Manager.app. This is the same framework as before and retains all the public headers and Application Programer Interface (API) end-points.

Minimal Installation

Power Manager already needs very few files installed outside of the application. Even so, we want to continue trying to reduce the number of files installed on your Mac.

With Power Manager 4.5.1, the removal of PowerManager.framework removed the need for us to touch the /Library/Frameworks folder on your Mac; that is a great improvement. Every folder less is a good thing.

To learn more about what Power Manager installs on your Mac, see Power Manager: Administrator - Package Reference. This reference document lists every file and folder used by Power Manager’s scheduler installer.