~/Library/Application Support/Aerial (if you installed for the first time after summer 2019).

~/Library/Caches/Aerial (long time users).Prior to macOS Catalina (10.15), the cache for a single user was either: /Library/Application Support/Aerial (if you installed for the first time after summer 2019)./Library/Caches/Aerial (long time users).Prior to macOS Catalina (10.15), the cache for multiple user was either: You can find the location of the cache prior to uninstalling by going into Aerial's Cache settings. It's location depends on the version of macOS you used, how you installed Aerial (for one user or multiple user) and when you first installed Aerial. If you think this method can be improved further more, please let me know, the code of the Companion and the update system is reviewable and is open source right here on GitHub.Īerial stores your videos in a local cache on your machine.

While nothing is ever perfect, these checks add many layers of security to the classical methods of just downloading a zip from GitHub. At that point, the new version is installed and ready to go! This replaces your old version or install fresh if you didn't have any.

If and only if everything checks out, then Aerial.saver gets copied to ~/Library/Screen Savers/ (a directory that is created if you don't have it).

Aerial.saver is verified (using macOS codesigning) to be signed/notarized with my Developer Apple ID.

Aerial.saver is verified (using macOS codesigning) to be using the correct Bundle ID ( >).

The zip is unzipped in place, looking for Aerial.saver.

The sha256 of the file is computed, and compared to the one from the manifest.

The zip file is downloaded to ~/Library/Application Support/AerialUpdater/.

Aerial Companion uses the version number from the manifest to infer the download link from Aerial's repository (the download links are always of the same format, so version 1.9.2 will be available at ).

When you decide to perform an update, the following happens: Periodically, Aerial Companion checks the manifest to see if a new version was released.

This is generated automatically on my Mac, after Aerial gets notarized for distribution and before I upload a new version on Aerial's releases page. I store a manifest file on GitHub that contains the version number of the latest release, and also the sha256 of the releases. They are signed with my personal Developer Apple ID (Guillaume Louel). Some generalities, both the screen saver and the Companion app are signed and notarized by/with Apple, as its now required. The honest answer would be that there are never any certainty when it comes to security.

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