Home

App Auto-Patch v3.7.0

Introduction

App Auto-Patch integrates local application discovery, Installomator, and user-friendly swiftDialog prompts to automate application patch management for Mac computers. With version 3.0, we have elevated automation by introducing several new features, including an automated background agent, settings via configuration profiles, and enhanced deferral options.

Main Features

• AAP 3.0 is designed to be MDM agnostic. While it still works great with Jamf Pro, setup and configuration have moved away from using Jamf Pro parameters.
• AAP 3.0 uses a background agent (LaunchDaemon) which allows AAP to work independently of a mobile device management (MDM) service. (In other words, you can take advantage of AAP with or without an MDM service.)
• AAP 3.0 performs an automatic installation of all required items and dependencies.
• AAP 3.0 is configurable using interactive command line or managed configuration profiles.
• AAP uses Installomator to inventory installed applications and patch them
• Customized options to ignore installomator labels, require them whether or not the app is installed, or force update only if installed

New in 3.7.0

• Business Hours — Keep interactive discovery, dialogs, and patching outside configured weekday windows, with optional discovery-only or closed-app silent-patching behavior during those windows
• Banner Notifications and Pending Apps Dialog — Notify users about silent/queued updates and let them review the existing queue before installing
• Scheduled Discovery and User-Driven Patching — Keep reporting current while automatic patch prompts and installations remain disabled
• Dock Icon and Safer Quit Handling — Show pending/remaining badges and apply predictable behavior when users quit workflow windows
• Process Recovery — Recover stale runs, avoid duplicate instances, stop stalled staging downloads, and provide an administrator --stop action
• Pre/Post Patch Scripts — Run validated, managed hooks around Installomator work
• Excluded Background Labels — Keep selected apps discoverable while excluding them from silent/background updates
• Cleaner Verbose Logging — Write verbose output only when requested and keep it out of aap.log
• GitHub API authentication, Mosyle integration, Skip Pre-Update Verification, a deferral-dialog preview trigger, determinate preparation progress, and additional reliability fixes

See What's New in 3.6.0 through 3.7.0 for the complete upgrade summary from 3.6.0 through 3.7.0.

Requirements

Although App Auto-Patch can be run completely silently, it is recommended that swiftDialog be installed on computers for end-user dialog. Below is a list of requirements that App Auto-Patch will confirm while starting the script:

• Script must be run as root
• Interactive workflows use Finder/Dock when a user session is available. Fully silent runs skip this dependency. As of 3.6.3, other runs wait briefly and continue headlessly when no user logs in instead of exiting.
• The computer is not logged into a system account
• Computer is running macOS 12 Monterey or later
• Dialog is installed, and the minimum required version is met if an interactive level is desired

Getting Started

Getting Started Wiki Page

Thank you

Thank you to everyone who has helped contribute to App Auto-Patch, including but not limited to:

• Robert Schroeder (@robjschroeder)
• Andrew Spokes (@TechTrekkie)
• Dan Snelson (@dan-snelson)
• Andrew Clarke (@drtaru)
• Andrew Barnett (@andrewmbarnett)
• Trevor Sysock (@bigmacadmin)
• Bart Reardon (@bartreardon)
• Charles Mangin (@option8)
• Gil Burns (@gilburns)