Index of /utilities/ungate/mac

Icon  Name                    Last modified      Size  Description
[PARENTDIR] Parent Directory                             -   
[   ] ungate.app.zip          2016-12-07 18:05  1.5M  
[   ] test.app.zip            2016-12-07 18:05  1.3M  
[TXT] readme.txt              2016-12-07 18:46  2.0K  

ungate.app v0.1
(c) 2016 Valentin Schmidt


What's this?
============

If you download unsigned mac applications (e.g. as ZIP or DMG) from the
internet, and you dont't have/don't want to activate option "Allow apps
downloaded from: Anywhere" in the Security control panel - which since Sierra is
only available after running "sudo spctl --master-disable" in the terminal-, you
can use this tiny Automator-based application "ungate" to still allow to run
such applications normally, and even directly via double-click when run for the
first time.

Background: Apple Gatekeeper stores the internet origin of a downloaded file in
some metadata in the file system, in the so called xattr "com.apple.quarantine".
All the "ungate.app" does is removing this xattr from a downloaded file - it
does not alter the file itself, but only removes this bit of metadata stored in
the file system.


Usage:
======

Just drop any downloaded ZIP or DMG on the ungate.app icon, done!
Important: you have to do this BEFORE unpacking/mounting downloaded ZIPs/DMGs or
other archives, otherwise it wont help.

Since "ungate.app" itself is downloaded from the internet, you first have to
"ungate" it by other means before you can use it. In Systems before Sierra, just
for the first time open it by selecting "open" from the Finder's context menu
and confirm that you want to run it. In Sierra (macOS 10.12), you can do this as
follows:

- open a Terminal Window and type: "xattr -d com.apple.quarantine " (without the
  quotes, but including the trailing space)
- drop the downloaded "ungate.app.zip" into the Terminal Window, which will add
  its complete path
- press the Enter key.

Done! Now "ungate.app.zip" is "ungated", and you can unpack the ZIP and use the
application (which you might move e.g. to your Applications folder or the Desktop,
whatever you prefer).

(Note: the above single command line for the Terminal Window is exactly what
"ungate.app" does internally in a single-line bash script).